LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


A  COMPANION  VOLUME  TO  HALLECK'S  LIFE, 


THE  POETICAL  WRITINGS  OF  FITZ-GREENE  HAL 
LE  OK.  Edited  by  JAMES  GKANT  WILSON.  With  a 
fine  Steel  Portrait  -from  Elliott's  Picture,  and  a  spirited 
illustration  of  "Marco  Bozzaris."  1  volume,  12mo. 
Uniform  with  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck." 

This  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  Halleck's  Poetical  Writings, 
including  "  The  Croakers,"  edited  by  the  poet's  literary  executor, 
General  Wilson,  is  printed  on  tinted  paper,  contains  a  fine  Steel 
Engraving  from  Elliott's  portrait,  and  a  spirited  illustration  of  the 
poem  "  Marco  Bozzaris."  The  interest  of  the  volume  is  greatly 
enhanced  by  a  number  of  new  unpublished  poems,  a  history  of 
the  origin  of  •"  The  Croakers,"  and  very  full  notes  by  the  Editor 
to  this  amusing  series  of  satirical  and  sprightly  jeux  d'esprit,  the 
joint  production  of  the  attached  friends  and  literary  partners, 
Drake  and  Halleck. 

NEW  YOBK :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO. 


C/      7^. 


0  F 


D    APPLETOU 


r't-\ 

THE 


LIFE   AND    LETTERS 


FITZ-GREENE   HALLECK. 


BY 

JAMES   GRANT   WILSON. 


Moi,  sur  cctte  rive  deserte 
Et  de  talents  et  de  vertus, 
Je  dirai,  soupirant  ma  perte  : 
Illustre  ami,  tu  ne  vis  plus  ! 
La  nature  est  veuve  et  muette  ! 
E!le  te  pleure ! — Le  Brun. 


NEW    YORK: 

D.     APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 
90,  92  &  94  GRAND  STREET. 

I869. 

9 


ENTERED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  by 

D.   APPLETON  AND  COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


*//, 

H /* 

1J 


TO 

JAMES    DIXON, 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 

THIS   BIOGRAPHY   OF 

A      BROTHER-POET 

IS  INSCRIBED, 
WITH    SENTIMENTS    OF    HIGH    ESTEEM    AND    GRATEFUL    REGARD, 

BY     THE     AUTHOR. 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF 
PAVIS 


PREFACE. 


IN  preparing  the  following  memorials  of  FITZ- 
GREENE  HALLECK,  it  has  been  the  author's  aim 
throughout  to  so  link  his  graceful  letters  and  charm 
ing  conversations  as  to  let  the  poet  himself  tell  the 
story  of  his  uneventful  career.  The  life  that  is  de 
voted  to  literature,  says  Dr.  Johnson,  passes  silently 
away,  and  is  little  diversified  by  events.  This  remark 
is  certainly  true  of  the  career  of  him  whose  "lyre  told 
of  Athenian  lands " — one  of  that  noble  brotherhood 
upon  whom  Wordsworth  bestowed  his  benediction : 

"  Blessings  be  with  them,  and  eternal  praise, 
Who  gave  us  nobler  loves,  and  nobler  cares  ! 
The  poets,  who  on  earth  have  made  us  heirs 
Of  truth,  and  pure  delight,  by  heavenly  lays." 

To  a  young  friend,  who  applied  to  Mr.  Halleck,  in 
1859,  for  material  for  a  biographical  sketch,  he  replied, 
with  his  characteristic  modesty :  "I  have  published 
very  little,  and  that  little  almost  always  anonymously, 
and  have  ever  been  but  an  amateur  in  the,  literary 
orchestra,  playing  only  upon  a  pocket  flute,  and  never 
aspiring,  even  in  a  dream,  to  the  dignity  of  the  baton, 


6  PREFA  CE. 

the  double  bass,  or  the  oboe.  My  every-day  pursuits 
in  life  have  been  quite  opposite  to  those  of  authors ; 
and  if,  among  them,  there  is  one  who  deems  me  worthy 
of  a  biography  from  his  pen  and  a  place  in  the  future, 
he  must  be  a  very  clever  fellow  himself  to  make  out  of 
my  '  Life  and  Adventures '  any  other  than  an  exceedingly 
dull  and  unsalable  book ! "  If,  haply,  the  poet's  pre 
diction  should  be  unfulfilled,  the  author  begs  that  to 
Mr.  Halleck's  entertaining  letters — for  he  assuredly 
possessed  V eloquence  du  billet — and  to  his  sparkling  com- 
mensalia,  interwoven  in  this  volume,  may  be  awarded 
the  credit  for  rescuing  it  from  the  unhappy  fate  as 
signed  to  it  by  its  subject.  To  borrow  the  quaint 
words  of  worthy  old  Chaucer :  "  Now  pray  I  to  hem 
alle  that  herkene  this  tretyse  or  rede,  that  yf  ther  be 
ony  thing  that  liketh  hem,  that  thereof  they  thank 
him,  of  whom  procedeth  al  wit  and  goodnes.  And  yf 
ther  be  ony  thing  that  displese  hem,  I  praye  hem  also 
that  they  arrette  it  to  the  defaute  of  myn  urikonnyng, 
and  not  to  my  will,  that  wold  fayn  have  seyde  better  if 
I  hadde  knowing." 

Whatever  exaggeration  there  may  be  in  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's  remark,  that  "  one  anecdote  of  a  man  is  worth 
a  volume  of  biography,"  the  writer  is  of  the  opinion  that 
it  very  often  gives  a  better  idea  of  individual  char 
acter  than  an  essay  or  a  eulogy.  Entertaining  this  be 
lief,  he  has  introduced  numerous  well-authenticated 
anecdotes  of  the  poet,  notwithstanding  they  may  pos 
sibly  appear  to  some  readers  trifling,  and  unworthy  of 
the  notice  of  a  biographer. 

The  author,  who  has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  recover 
a  large  number  of  unpublished  poems — for  the  most 
part  written  during  Mr.  Halleck's  boyhood — is  well 


PREFA  CE.  7 

aware  that  many  of  the  youthful  lines  admitted  into 
the  second  chapter  of  this  volume  may,  by  some,  be 
deemed  of  insufficient  merit  to  entitle  them  to  preser 
vation  ;  but,  as  merely  tentative,  "  the  flights  of  a  noble 
bird  for  the  first  time  essaying  his  own  wings,"  the  writer 
trusts  his  desire  to  preserve  these  spring-time  memo 
rials  may  meet  with  the  approbation  of  the  judicious. 
The  author  has  but  followed  his  own  judgment  in  adopt 
ing  the  advice  of  an  honored  and  venerable  friend,  who 
said,  "  Give  us  every  line  that  you  can  discover,  either 
in  prose  or  verse,  for  Halleck's  chaff  is  better  than 
other  people's  wheat.  No  scrap  of  writing  which  ever 
fell  from  his  pen  but  is  worthy  of  preservation." 

In  addition  to  the  numerous  juvenile  pieces  and 
several  later  poems  by  Mr.  Halleck,  now  published  for 
the  first  time,  the  author  has  obtained  from  various 
sources  original  letters  and  notes,  written  by  Samuel 
Rogers,  Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  Charles  Dickens,  Ed 
gar  A.  Poe,  Miss  Sedgwick,  Mrs.  Kirkland,  and  Major 
Jack  Downing ;  also  unpublished  poems  by  Halleck's 
friends  Dr.  Drake  and  Mrs.  Sigourney,  which,  together 
with  several  poetical  tributes  addressed  to  him,  will 
be  found  interwoven  with  the  memoir. 

It  was  the  peculiar  good  fortune  of  the  author  of 
this  volume  to  have  been  honored  with  the  friendship 
of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  who  was  la  vielle  cour  personni- 
fiee.  Deeply  attached  to  him  since  the  writer's  school 
boy  days,  filled  with  admiration  which  all  felt  for  his 
genius,  he  may  truly  adopt  Lord  Erskine's  words  in 
closing  the  preface  to  Mr.  Fox's  speeches,  that  he  "re 
gards  it  as  the  most  happy  circumstance  of  his  life  to 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  thus  publicly  expressing 
veneration  for  his  memory."  What  was  written  of 


g  PREFA  CE. 

another  is  even  more  applicable  to  Halleck:  "  Search 
the  wide  world  over,  and  you  shall  not  find  among  the 
literary  men  of  any  nation  one  on  whom  the  dignity  of 
a  free  and  manly  spirit  sits  with  a  grace  more  native 
and  familiar ;  whose  acts,  whether  common  and  daily, 
or  deliberate  and  much  considered,  were  wont,  at  all 
times,  to  be  more  beautifully  impressed  with  those 
marks  of  sincerity,  of  modesty,  and  of  justice,  which 
form  the  very  soul  of  worth  in  conduct." 

The  author  returns  his  thanks  to  the  many  kind 
friends  who  have  in  various  ways  contributed  to  this 
biography  ;  and  he  would  particularly  acknowledge  his 
indebtedness  to  the  poet's  sister ;  to  Mr.  Halleck's  kins 
men  Dr.  Ellsworth  Eliot  and  the  Rev.  William  A. 
Hallock,  for  information  concerning  their  ancestry ;  to 
Ralph  D.  Smith,  of  Guilford,  for  facts  connected  with 
the  early  history  of  that  town ;  to  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  Charles  P.  Clinch,  Benjamin  R.  Winthrop,  and 
to  the  poet's  friend  and  physician,  Dr.  Edward  G.  Lud- 
low,  for  details  relating  to  his  residence  in  New  York. 

To  those  who  have  furnished  the  author  with  data 
not  contained  in  this  work,  but  which  will  be  made  use 
of  hereafter,  he  would  also  express  his  grateful  acknowl 
edgments.  Among  the  material  received  at  too  late  a 
day  to  be  incorporated  in  this  volume  are  several  un 
published  poems  from  Mr.  Halleck's  graceful  pen ; 
reminiscences  of  his  always  delightful  and  brilliant 
table-talk ;  and  some  fourscore  letters  of  general  in 
terest,  extending  over  a  period  of  nearly  half  a  century. 

51  ST.  MARK'S  PLACE,  NEW  YORK, 
December,  1868. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    I. 
1603-1789. 

The  Poet's  Ancestry.— The  Hallecks.— The  Eliots.— The  Indian  Bible.— 
Israel  Halleck  and  Mary  Eliot. — Their  Marriage. — Guilford.          13 

CHAPTER    II. 
1790-1810. 

Birth  and  Boyhood.— At  School.— Love  of  Reading.— Passion  for  Poetry.— 
Juvenile  Verses.— Clerk  with  Andrew  Elliot.— Visits  New  York.— 
Enters  the  Militia.— Teaches  an  Evening  School.— Epistle  to  Carlos 
Menie. — The  Rainbow  and  other  Poems.  .  .  .  .  .  40 

CHAPTER'  III. 
1811-1818. 

Leaves  Guilford.— Arrival  in  New  York.— Enters  Jacob  Barker's  Counting- 
room. — First  Letters. — His  Business  Associates. — New  York  in  1811. — 
Visits  Guilford. — Poem  appears  in  Columbian. — The  Iron  Grays.— The 
Ugly  Club. — Literature  of  i8oo-'is. — Becomes  acquainted  with  DeKay 
and  Drake. — Visits  to  Hunter's  Point  and  Love  Lane. — "  The  Culprit 


Io  /         CONTENTS. 

Fay."— Goes  to  North  Carolina.— At  Drake's  Wedding.— Washington 
and  Warren  Bank.— Receives  Poetical  Epistles  from  Drake.— Writes 
Songs  for  Miss  McCall—  Poem,  "  Twilight."— Anecdote.  .  101 


CHAPTER    IV. 

1819-1822. 

The  Croakers.— Halleck's  and  Drake's  Sermons.— Anecdotes.— Residence 
at  Bloomingdale. — "  Fanny." — Letter  from  Prescott. — Death  of  Drake. 
— "Wyoming." — Visits  Canada. — Departure  for  Europe. — Arrival  at 
Liverpool. — Travels  in  Great  Britain,  France,  Switzerland,  and  Ger 
many. — Talleyrand.  —  "The  Ettrick  Shepherd." — Mrs.  Siddons. — 
Coleridge.  —  "Yankee  Ravings."  —  "  Alnwick  Castle"  and  other 
Poems 215 


CHAPTER    V. 

1823-1830. 

Arrival  in  New  York. — Lines  on  Lieutenant  Allen. — Visits  Guilford.— 
Meets  Percival. — Marco  Bozzaris. — Sketch  of  the  Hero. — Lafayette. — 
The  Poet  Brainard. — Mahony's  Translation  from  Beranger. — Byron's 
Death. — Invocation  to  Halleck. — An  Unpublished  "Croaker." — Publi 
cation  of  Poems. — Lines  on  Red  Jacket. — The  Recorder. — Death  of 
William  Coleman. — Leaves  Jacob  Barker. — The  Last  "  Croaker."  283 


CHAPTER    VI. 
1831-1840. 

The  New-England  Magazine  on  Halleck. — Joseph  Snelling. — Miss  Sedg- 
wick. — Campbell  and  Pollok. — Poems  of  1831. — Edits  Byron's  Works. 
— Visits  Washington. — Enters  Astor's  office. — The  Cholera. — Fanny 
Kemble. — Anecdotes  of  the  Kembles. — Piero  Maroncelli. — Translation 
from  the  Italian.  —  Ellen  Campbell.  —  Her  Letters.  —  Publication  of 
Poems.— Description  of  Halleck.— Letter  from  Samuel  Rogers.— The 


CONTENTS,  1 1 

Authors'   and  other  Clubs.— Louis  Napoleon.— William  Reynolds.— 
Fort  Lee. — Anecdotes.     -    .      -. 34° 


CHAPTER    VII. 
1841-1847. 

A  Poet's  Trials.— His  Generosity.— Letter  from  Edgar  A.  Poe.— A  Poetical 
Epistle.— Charles  Dickens  in  New  York.— Notes  from  the  Novelist— 
Authors'  Compensation. — "The  winds  of  March  are  humming." — Let 
ter  from  Scotland.— Notice  of  Halleck.— Mrs.  C.  M.  Kirkland.— Death 
of  Henry  Inman. — The  Poet's  Haunts. — His  Conversation. — Tribute  to 
Halleck.— Reminiscences  of  the  Poet— Valentines.— Halleck  on  Com 
pliments.  .  .  .....  .  '.  •'•  .  ,  .  .  426 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

1848-1857. 

Death  of  Astor. — Illustrated  Edition  of  Poems. — Halleck's  Acquaintances. 
—Retires  to  Guilford.— Notice  of  the  Poet.— Halleck  on  Laughter- 
Anecdote.— Mrs.  Sigourney  to  the  Poet— A  New  Poem.— The  Cooper 
Monument.— Dinner  at  the  Century  Club.— Lines  to  Clark.— Portrait 
for  Mr.  Win throp. —Breakfast  with  the  Poet. — Thackeray. — An  amus 
ing  Letter. — St.  Paul's  and  Trinity  Churchyards.  .  .  .  476 


CHAPTER    IX. 

1858-1866. 

New  Editions  of  Poems. — Fourth  of  July  in  New  York. — Reminiscences. — 
Birthday  Lines. — Anecdotes  of  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Marshal  Grouchy, 
etc. — French  Translations. — Mr.  Bryant  visits  Halleck. — Letters  to 
Mrs.  Rush. — Browning  and  Tennyson. — Capture  of  John  Slidell. — 
War-Odes. — Picture  of  Irving  and  his  Friends. — Halleck's  Opinion  of 
Jackson. — A  Visit  to  the  Poet. — Anecdotes. — Young  America. — Willis 
on  Halleck. — Letter  to  a  Clergyman. — Reminiscences.  .  .  514 


I2  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    X. 
1867. 

William  Gilmore  Simms's  Recollections  of  Halleck. — The  Poet  visits  New 
York. — His  Stories. — Letters  to  the  Author. — Halleck  on  Junius. — 
Second  Visit  to  New  York. — Anecdote  of  Dr.  Johnson. — Halleck's 
Marvellous  Memory. — Repeating  "  Fanny  "  and  "  Pleasures  of  Hope." 
—Dr.  Channing  and  Miss  Sedgwick.— Halleck  at  Home.— The  Last 
Rose  of  Summer. — A  Political  Letter. — Last  Visit  to  New  York. — Con 
fined  to  his  Hotel. — Conversation. — Returns  to  Guilford. — His  Last 
Letter  and  Verses. — Illness. — Death. — Funeral. — Tributes  to  his  Mem 
ory.  .  .  , 543 

APPENDIX. 

Greek  Translations  of  Marco  Bozzaris. — Portraits  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck. 
— Statement  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bennett. — The  Halleck  Monument  and 
Statue 584 


LIFE   AND   LETTERS 


OF 


FITZ-GREENE    HALLECK. 


CHAPTER  I. 

1603-1789. 

The  Poet's  Ancestry.— The  Hallecks.— The  Eliots.— The  Indian  Bible.— 
Israel  Halleck  and  Mary  Eliot.— Their  Marriage.— Guilford. 

JVERY  Scottishman,"  said  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
"  has  a  pedigree.  It  is  a  natural  prerogative, 
as  unalienable  as  his  pride  and  his  poverty,"  a  remark 
equally  applicable  to  the  New-Englander.  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck's  ancestors  were  among  the  earliest  of  the  Pil 
grim  Fathers — not  a  bad  genealogy  for  an  American ; 
and  some  literary  admixture  was  in  his  blood  from  both 
his  paternal  and  maternal  ancestry.  The  poet  claimed 
a  more  ancient  descent  than  I,  as  a  conscientious  bio 
grapher,  can  assign  to  him,  when  he  said  that  "  the  coun 
try-seat  of  his  remote  ancestors  was  at  Mount  Halak,1 

1  Joshua  xi.  17,  also  xii.  7. 


I4  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

in  Palestine;  "  referring  his  incredulous- listener  to  Dr. 
Robinson,  the  distinguished  traveller,  who  had  visited 
the  old  homestead,  and  had  assured  the  poet  that  "it 
still  bore  the  same  name,  or  some  one  near  enough 
like  it  to  serve  the  purpose  of  identification." 

Peter  Hallock,  the  ancestor  of  Fitz-Greene,  was  one 
of  twelve  heads  of  families  who,  in  search  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  sailed  from  England  for  the  New 
World,  with  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  John  Youngs,  and 
landed  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  November  21, 
1640.  There  Youngs  "  gathered  his  church  anew," 
under  the  auspices  of  Rev.  John  Davenport,  minister, 
and  Theophilus  Eaton,  Governor  of  the  New-Haven 
Colony.  In  the  same  autumn  the  little  company  em 
barked  for  the  eastern  shore  of  Long  Island,  and  were 
at  first  intimidated,  by  the  sight  of  the  savages  on  the 
shore,  from  landing,  until  Peter  Hallock,  a  bold,  stal 
wart,  and  strong  man,  sprang  into  the  water  and  "ad 
ventured  up  among  them."  The  spot  in  the  township 
of  Southhold  has  ever  since  been  known  as  "  Hallock's 
Neck,"  and  the  beach  extending  from  it  as  "  Hallock's 
Beach."  Peter  purchased  from  the  Indians  the  tract 
of  land,  since  called  Oyster  Ponds,  now  Orient,  and 
soon  after  returned  to  England  for  his  wife,  who,  when 
he  married  her,  was  a  comely  widow  with  one  son  by 
her  former  husband,  Mr.  Howell.  His  pretty  wife,  it 
appears,  was  unwilling  to  go  to  the  Western  wilder 
ness,  and  so  Peter  proniised  her  that,  if  she  now 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  l$ 

accompanied  him,  her  son  should  share  with  his,  in 
his  property.  On  his  return,  finding  that  the  Indians 
had  resold  his  lands,  he  made  a  second  purchase  of 
land,  lying  about  ten  miles  west  of  Southhold  village, 
and  extending  from  Long  Island  Sound,  on  the  north, 
to  Peconic  Bay,  on  the  south,  on  which  he  settled  at 
Aquebogue,  about  two  miles  from  Mattituck  village 
and  creek.  The  original  homestead  and  that  of  his 
wife's  son,  Howell,  are  still  standing,  and  are  owned 
and  occupied  by  their  respective  descendants,  Ben 
jamin  Laurens  Hallock  and  Sylvester  Howell.  Other 
families  of  Hallocks,  most  of  whom  are  prosperous 
farmers,  and  all  descendants  of  the  courageous  Peter, 
reside  in  the  vicinity  of  Aquebogue  and  elsewhere  on 
Long  Island.  The  facts  connected  with  the  landing 
of  Peter  Hallock,  and  the  location  and  history  of  the 
thirteen  first  settlers,  are  given  with  great  accuracy  by 
Rev.EpherWhitaker,  successor  of  the  Rev.  John  Youngs 
in  the  church  at  Southhold,  in  a  sermon  preached  two 
hundred  years  after  their  arrival  on  Long  Island.  The 
place  where  they  buried  their  winter's  provisions  and 
the  cellar  of  the  parsonage  built  for  Mr.  Youngs  are 
still  to  be  seen,  as  is  this  early  preacher's  carefully- 
cherished  grave. 

William,  the  only  son  of  the  pilgrim  and  his  wife 
the  Widow  Howell,  left  a  will,1  dated  February   10, 

1  Vide  Records  of  Suffolk  County,  at  Riverhead,  Long  Island,  and  of 
New- York  City. 


X6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

1682,  being  two  years  before  his  death :  "  I  commit  my 
soul  into  the  hands  of  Jesus  Christ,  my  gracious  Re 
deemer,  and  my  body  to  the  earth  by  decent  burial,  in 
assured  hope  of  the  resurrection  at  the  last  day."  He 
gives  his  property  to  his  wife  Margaret,  his  four  sons, 
John,  Thomas,  Peter,  and  William,  and  his  five 
daughters.  The  will  implies  deep  sorrow  that  his 
eldest  son,  John,  had  married  into  and  joined  the  pro 
scribed  Society  of  Friends,  who  in  that  age  were  re 
garded  by  civil  enactments  almost  as  outlaws,  and,  ac 
cordingly,  sadly  persecuted ;  and  has  the  proviso  that, 
if  any  one  of  his  sons  "  shall  apostatize  from  the  Prot 
estant  doctrine  and  faith,"  or  "  wilfully  and  of  set  pur 
pose  contemn  and  neglect  the  public  worship  of  God 
suitable  thereto,"  what  is  here  willed  to  him  shall  pass 
over  to  "  the  next  lawful  heir  that  shall  steadfastly  pro 
fess  and  own  the  said  doctrine  and  faith."  He,  however, 
relents  sufficiently  to  add  the  following  clause :  "also, 
my  will  is  that  my  son,  John  Hollyoake,  whom,  as  an 
obstinate  apostate,  I  do  reject  and  deprive  of  all  other 
estate,  yet  I  do  hereby  give  unto  him,  his  heirs  and 
assigns  forever,  my  second  lot  at  Wading  Creek,  with 
the  appurtenances  thereunto  belonging,  which  is  all 
that  he  is  ever  to  have  of  my  estate."  The  will  also 
exhibits  the  stanch  Cavalier  tendencies  of  its  maker, 
who,  entirely  ignoring  the  interregnum  of  Cromwell, 
dates  it  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  King  Charles  the 
Second. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  17 

The  name  Hallock,  or  Halleck  (for  it  is  written 
both  ways,  and,  though  the  majority  of  the  family  use 
the  former  spelling,  Fitz-Greene  followed  his  father's  ex 
ample  in  adopting  the  latter  mode,  also  used  by  his  kins 
man,  General  Henry  W.  Halleck,  of  the  United  States 
Army),  which  underwent  various  transformations  in  the 
town  records  and  legal  documents  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  through  the  corrupt  orthog 
raphy  of  those  periods,  as  Hollyoake,  Halioke,  Hal- 
liock,  Hallick,  Hallack,  belongs,  under  its  olden  spell 
ing,  "  Holyoak,"  to  the  best  class  of  England's  country 
gentlemen. 

John,  the  grandson  of  Peter,  and  the  eldest  son  of 
William,  did  not  "inherit  the  homestead.  "The  land 
where  I  now  dwell  at  Aquebogue,"  and  the  lane  divid 
ing  it,  he  wills  to  Thomas  and  Peter,  giving  Thomas 
the  western  half,  "except  the  swamp  lot,"  near  his 
house,  and  giving  Peter  "  the  eastern  half,  with  the 
swamp  lot,"  and  his  dwelling.  To  his  son  William  he 
gives  lands  in  or  near  Southhold  village,  and  to  John 
land  on  Wading  Creek.  The  latter  appears  to  have 
left  Aquebogue  with  his  pretty  Quaker  wife  soon  after 
his  father's  death,  and  to  have  taken  up  his  resi 
dence  elsewhere,  as  the  list  of  the  total  inhabitants  of 
Southhold  township  in  1698  does  not  contain  his  name 
or  the  names  of  his  children,  but  does  include  that  of 
his  mother  and  those  of  his  three  brothers  and  their 
descendants — in  all,  twenty-three  persons  bearing  the 


jg  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

name  of  Hallock.1  The  Westbury  monthly  meet 
ing  of  Quakers  records  the  death  of  John  Hallock, 
grandson  of  Peter,  and  that  of  his  wife,  Abigail,  at 
Setauket,  in  Brookhaven,  during  the  year  1737,  "both 
very  ancient  and  in  unity  with  Friends."  It  is  a 
curious  circumstance,  worthy  of  mention,  that  one  of 
John's  descendants  inserted  in  his  will  a  bar  to  his 
children's  leaving,  as  his  ancestor  William  did  to  his 
joining,  the  Society  of  Friends.  Of  the  poet's  opinion 
of  business  Quakers  we  have  the  testimony  of  William 
Cullen  Bryant,  who  said,  at  a  public  dinner  in  1868 : 
"I  remember  what  a  witty  acquaintance  of  mine  said, 
some  twenty  years  since,  of  certain  persons  engaged  in 
trade,  who  were  of  the  denomination  of  Quakers — and 
none  the  worse  for  that,  I  hope.  He  said :  ( They  are 
the  most  dangerous  of  dishonest  men.  They  will  never 
cheat  you,  not  they ;  but,  by  the  help  of  plain,  friendly, 
and  apparently  sincere  manners,  they  will  manage  so 
that  you  will  cheat  yourself.'  The  person  who  said 
this  was  the  poet  Halleck." 

Deeds  still  preserved  at  Riverhead  name  four  sons 
of  John,  the  second  being  called  Peter,  all  of  whom 
settled  at  Setauket.  The  neat  dwellings,  covered  with 
cedar,  of  John  and  of  his  eldest  son,  bearing  the  same 
name,  are  still  to  be  seen  there.  Peter,  born  in  1689, 
removed  from  his  native  village  to  Nine  Partners,  in 
Dutchess  County — now  Washington  Hollow  and  vicin- 

1  Documentary  History  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^ 

ity,  near  Poughkeepsie — about  the  year  1750,  leaving, 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1772,  six  sons.  The  eldest, 
bearing  the  same  name,  and,  like  all  his  American 
ancestors,  a  farmer,  had  a  daughter,  who  married 
Richard  Keese,  the  original  proprietor  of  Keeseville, 
New  York,  and  four  sons,  the  second  of  whom,  called 
Israel,  was  the  father  of  Fitz-Greene. 

Israel  Halleck  was  born  at  Nine  Partners,  also  the 
birthplace  of  the  poet's  friend,  James  Kirke  Paulding, 
December  25,  1755.  Brought  up  on  a  farm,  after 
receiving  the  usual  limited  education  common  among 
farmers'  sons  at  that  day,  he,  like  his  father,  who  had 
abjured  the  Quaker  faith,  adopted  that  of  the  Church 
of  England.  Both  father  and  son  were  stanch  loyal 
ists,  espousing,  as  the  Episcopalians  very  generally 
did,  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the 
cause  of  the  Crown  against  the  colonies.  Israel  Hal 
leck  left  his  native  place,  the  inhabitants  of  which, 
according  to  the  authority  of  Captain  Paul  Ricaut,  of 
the  British  army,  were  "a  riotous  people  and  Levellers 
by  principle,"  and  made  his  way,  with  several  comrades 
of  loyalist  tendencies,  to  New  York  City,  after  it  was 
occupied  by  the  British  in  1776.  Early  in  the  war  he 
became  acquainted  with  Colonel  Tarleton,  and  accom 
panied  that  fiery  sabreur  in  his  various  campaigns. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  occupied  any  place 
or  position  in  the  British  army,  and  the  presumption 
is,  that  Tarleton,  becoming  attached  to  him  as  a  friend 


20 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


and  companion,  made  him  a  member  of  his  military 
family.  Tarleton's  mess-table  was  enlivened  by  Hal- 
leek's  songs  and  stories,  and  by  his  remarkable  conver 
sational  gifts  and  charming  manners,  which  the  few 
survivors  who  remember  him,  as  he  was  some  sixty  or 
seventy  years  since,  pronounce  to  have  even  surpassed 
those  of  his  gifted  son.  The  young  Duke  of  Clarence, 
afterward  King  of  Great  Britain,  who  now  and  then 
came,  in  his  midshipman's  roundabout,  to  Tarleton's 
quarters  to  dine,  and  who  lived  with  Admiral  Digby  in 
the  old  Beekman  House,  in  Hanover  Square,  was  one  of 
his  distinguished  friends,  and  many  a  skating-bout  did 
the  Dutchess-County  boy  have  with  the  young  Duke, 
on  the  Collect,  near  where  the  Tombs  now  stand,  and 
on  one  occasion  saved  him  from  a  watery  grave,  by 
helping  his  Royal  Highness  out  of  a  hole  in  the  ice 
through  which  he  had  fallen. 

The  accomplished  and  unfortunate  Andre  and  young 
Percy,  the  "major  of  dragoons,"  who  fought  at  Lex 
ington,  were  also  among  Mr.  Halleck's  familiar  friends 
and  associates.  The  poet's  father  was  deeply  attached 
to  the  daring  and  dashing  Tarleton,  and,  in  his  con 
versations  regarding  the  events  of  his  early  life,  often 
spoke  admiringly  of  the  smooth-faced,  dark-complex 
ioned,  and  active  young  soldier,, with  the  small,  pier 
cing  black  eye,  and  pleasant  smile. 

Israel  Halleck  was  one  of  "  Nature's  gentlemen," 
as  the  poet  Moore  said  of  his  father.  He  was  punc- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2I 

tiliously  polite,  with  the  well-bred,  high-born  courtesy 
which  characterized  the  gentleman  of  that  day,  and 
with  a  never- failing  bonhomie,  that  only  ceased  with 
the  pulsations  of  his  kind  heart.  With  young  and  old 
he  was  alike  a  favorite.  One  who  knew  him  intimately 
for  fifty  years  informed  the  writer  that  he  never  saw 
him  angry  but  on  one  occasion,  and  that  was  caused 
by  some  one  doubting  his  word.  The  same  gentle 
man1  stated  to  me  that  one  of  Mr.  Halleck's  pecu 
liarities  was  an  intense  dislike  which  he  entertained 
against  the  Jews,  concerning  whom  he  once  remarked 
that  "God  had  more  trouble  with  them  than  with  any 
other  people." 

"My  father,"  said  the  poet  to  a  friend,2  "was  a 
British  commissary.  But  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
this  high-sounding  title  was  a  fiction.  British  and 
other  commissaries  usually  accumulate  fortunes ;  but, 
as  my  father  made  nothing  by  the  war,  I  think  he 
must  have  been  a  sutler.  And  my  opinion  is  that,  as 
a  sutler  transacts  his  business  upon  his  own  capital,  and 
a  commissary  draws  his  funds  from  the  military  chest, 
the  chances  of  being  an  honest  man  are  greatly  in  favor 
of  the  sutler." 

Soon  after  the  termination  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  Israel  Halleck  settled  at  Southhold,  Long  Island, 
and,  forming  a  partnership  with  James  Peters,  began 
business  there  as  a  country  merchant.  A  few  years 

1  George  A.  Foote.  3  Frederick  S.  Cozzens. 


22  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

later  he  went  to  the  West  Indies,  returning  in  a  vessel 
bound  to  Guilford,  Connecticut,  at  that  period  a  place 
carrying  on  a  very  considerable  trade  with  the  West 
India  Islands.  Detained  there  for  several  days,  await 
ing  an  opportunity  of  returning  to  Southhold,  Halleck 
was  so  much  pleased  with  the  appearance  of  the  place 
and  its  people,  but  more  especially,  I  suspect,  with  the 
bright  eyes  and  rosy  cheeks  of  a  certain  young  lady 
whom  he  saw  there,  that  he  sold  out  his  share  of  the 
business  at  Southhold  to  his  partner,  and  removed  to 
Guilford,  where  he  opened  a  store.  His  engaging 
manners,  his  tall  and  erect  figure,  and  his  fine  dancing, 
with  other  accomplishments  not  common  among  the 
rural  swains  of  that  day,  rendered  him  an  object  of 
admiration  among  the  belles  of  the  town.  He,  how 
ever,  remained  faithful  to  his  first  love,  the  daughter 
of  a  substantial  farmer  of  Guilford,  by  whom  he  was 
accepted,  and,  on  the  3oth  of  September,  1787,  he 
leads  to  the  altar  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  at  her 
native  place,  where  her  family  have  resided  for  more 
than  two  hundred  years,  Mary  Eliot,  a  descendant  of 
the  godly  man,  John  Eliot. 

"A  people,"  says  Macaulay,  "which  takes  no 
pride  in  the  noble  achievements  of  remote  ancestors, 
will  never  achieve  any  thing  worthy  to  be  remembered 
with  pride  by  remote  descendants,"  and  Edmund  Burke 
remarks  that  "  those,  who  do  not  treasure  up  the  mem 
ory  of  their  ancestors,  do  not  deserve  to  be  remem- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  23 

bercd  by  posterity."  In  full  sympathy  with  these 
views,  the  poet  always  took  great  delight  in  speaking 
of  his  ancestors,  and  in  particular  of  the  "  Apostle  to 
the  Indians,"  and  "no  title  more  honorable  than  this," 
writes  the  present  Earl  of  St.  Germans,  "  illustrates 
any  pedigree." 

John  Eliot  was  born  at  Nasing,  Essex  County, 
England,  in  1603,  and  was  educated  at  the  University 
of  Cambridge.  In  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  his  age 
he  sailed  in  the  ship  Lion,  in  company  with  Governor 
Winthrop's  wife  and  children,  and  some  sixty  others, 
for  the  New  World,  and  on  the  2d  of  November, 
1631,  landed  at  Boston,  Massachusetts;  four  months 
-  later  he  was  settled  as  a  preacher  and  teacher  at 
Roxbury.  Acquiring  the  language  of  the  red-men, 
among  whom  he  labored  with  great  success,  converting 
many  to  Christianity,  he  gained  for  himself  the  title  of 
the  " Apostle  to  the  Indians."  "The  apostle — and 
truly  I  know  not  who,  since  Peter  and  Paul,  better 
deserves  that  name,"  said  Edward  Everett,  in  an  oration 
delivered  by  him  a  few  years  before  his  death.  Eliot's 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Indian  tongue  was  first 
published  in  1663,  and  there  is  now  but  one  person 
living1  who  can  read  or  understand  a  single  verse  in 
any  of  the  few  perfect  copies  still  preserved  in  the 
Astor,  Harvard,  Yale,  and  other  American  libraries, 

1  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  of  Hartford,  late  Secretary  of  the  State  of 
Connecticut 


24  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

and  that  person  is  not  of  the  race  for  whom  the  trans 
lation  was  made  by  the  devoted  and  faithful  missionary. 
They  have,  alas  !  all  long  since  passed  away. 

Holy  old  relic !  how  the  years  departed, 

Shrouded  in  dark  and  painful  memories,  rise  ! 

How  many  a  tear  has  o'er  these  pages  started, 
How  many  a  prayer  ascended  to  the  skies  ! 

No  human  eye  can  glean  its  holy  meaning, 
Though  practised  long  o'er  ancient  scrolls  to  range, 

Or  rend  the  veil  its  deep-sealed  mysteries  screening 
'Neath  unknown  accents,  dissonant  and  strange. 

"  Up  Biblum  God!  "     The  message  of  salvation 

To  the  poor  Indian's  disappearing  race ; 
Bidding  hope,  though  men  forget  his  nation, 
In  heaven  his  people  have  a  name  and  place ! 

And  though  his  tongue  be  evermore  unspoken 
Among  the  mountains  where  he  loved  to  dwell, 

Still  let  us  trust  by  this  sublime  old  token, 

Some  souls  in  heaven  might  comprehend  it  well ! 

"  Up  Bibhim  God!  "     Full  many  a  melting  story 
Didst  thou  unfold  to  the  stern  red-man's  ear; 
Full  many  a  truth  of  high  celestial  glory, 
Out  from  this  cumbrous  dialect  rose  clear ! 

"Up  Biblum  God!  "     And  is  thy  work  now  ended ? 
Not  so — while  thou  canst  move  our  holiest  tears, 
And  rouse  the  soul  where  Love  and  Faith  are  blended 
To  spread  thy  Light  in  these  millennial  years ! 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2$ 

O  Death  !  O  Time  !  O  Change  !  are  ye  not  ever 
A  triune  wonderworker,  stern  and  dread  ? 

Ye  can  blot  nations  out  and  tongues,  but  never 
The  Book  of  God,  the  soul's  perennial  Bread  !  1 


UP  BIBLUM  GOD,  which  means  the  Book  of  God,  is 
a  portion  of  the  title  of  Eliot's  Indian  Bible.  "  Wutap- 
pesiltukqussunuookwehtunkquoh,"  kneeling  down  to 
him,  is  a  single  word,  while  one  of  the  shortest  verses 
runs  as  follows:  "  Nummelsuongash  asekesukokish 
assneannean  zenzen  kesukod."  The  original  edition 
was  one  thousand  copies,  of  which  not  more  than  fif 
teen  are  known  to  be  preserved  in  the  United  States. 
A  copy  was  sold  in  New  York,  in  May,  1868,  for  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty  dollars  ($1,130),  the 
highest  price  ever  paid  for  a  printed  book  in  this 
country.  It  was  the  first  Bible  in  any  language 
printed  in  America,  and  it  would  seem,  from  the  aston 
ishing  sums  which  have  been  paid  for  them  during  late 
years,  that  books  increase  in  price  in  proportion  as 
they  lack  readers.  These  sales  of  Indian  Bibles  have 
resulted  in  attracting  attention  to  the  vast  and  unselfish 
labors  of  the  distinguished  and  devoted  missionary  to 
the  Massachusetts  Indians.  Any  history  of  this  coun 
try  would  be  incomplete  without  an  extended  notice  of 
his  meritorious  acts,  and  well  might  Mr.  Halleck  have 
been  proud  of  an  alliance  with  such  excellence. 

1  Putnam's  Magazine,  September,  1868, 


26  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  first  work  printed  or 
published  in  America  should  have  been  a  volume  of 
poetry,  and  that  one  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck's  ancestors 
should  have  taken  a  prominent  part  in  its  preparation. 
The  "  Bay  Psalm  Book,"  the  earliest  New-England  ver 
sion  of  the  Psalms,  and  the  first  book  printed  in  Amer 
ica,  was  the  joint  work  of  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  of 
Dorchester,  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  and  his  associate  in  the 
ministry,  Rev.  Thomas  Weld.  It  is  certainly  remark 
able  that  the  first  book  in  stern  and  practical  New 
England  should  be  a  collection  of  rough-hewn  and 
quaint  verses,  which  are  certainly  forcible,  if  they  fail 
of  poetic  excellence.  But  for  this  the  translators  made 
no  pretensions.  On  the  contrary,  they  avow  that  if 
"the  verses  are  not  always  so  smooth  and  elegant  as 
some  may  desire  or  expect,  let  them  consider  that 
God's  altar  needs  not  our  pollishings,  Ex.  xx.,  for  wee 
have  respected  rather  a  plaine  translation,  than  to 
smooth  our  verses  with  the  sweetnes  of  any  paraphrase, 
and  soe  have  attended  Conscience  rather  than  Ele 
gance,  fidelity  rather  than  poetry,  in  translating  He 
brew  words  into  English  language  and  David's  poetry 
into  English  meetre." 

While  tracing  talent  and  worth  from  one  generation 
to  another,  it  is  natural  to  be  on  the  qui  vive  for 
prominent  characteristics,  especially  if,  in  any  instance, 
there  has  been  a  remarkable  manifestation  of  genius. 
"  The  poet  is  born,"  says  the  old  Latin  proverb.  There- 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2/ 

fore  he  inherits  his  art,  which  persevering  culture  may 
make  famous.  The  biographer  of  the  apostle,  Rev. 
Convers  Francis,  D.  D.,  says:  "Mr.  Eliot  appears 
sometimes  to  have  indulged  the  rhyming  vein  for  his 
own  amusement.  A  few  specimens  of  this  sort,  with 
the  anagrams  so  common  in  that  age,  are  found  in  the 
ancient  book  of  records  belonging  to  the  church  in 
Roxbury."1 

Having  presided  over  the  church  at  Roxbury  for 
nearly  sixty  years,  the  evangelist  of  the  savages,  who, 
by  Atlaean  labor,  performed  a  greater  undertaking  than 
any  translators  of  the  Bible  before  or  since,  and  who 
first  preached  the  Word  of  God  to  the  American  Indians 
in  their  own  tongue,  calmly  ended  his  earthly  existence 
on  the  2oth  of  May,  1690,  in  the  eighty-sixth  year  of 
his  age,  leaving  a  son  and  a  daughter.  Three  years 
before  his  death  he  was  called  to  mourn  the  loss  of  his 
heart's  companion,  who  hovered  around  him  like  a 
ministering  angel.  "  In  this  year,  1687,"  says  the 
apostle,  "  died  mine  ancient  and  most  dearly  beloved 
wife.  I  was  sick  unto  death,  but  the  Lord  was  pleased 
to  delay  me,  and  retain  my  service,  which  is  but  poor 
and  weak."  His  eldest  son,  John,  had  been  taken 
away  in  1668.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College, 
then  established  at  Cambridge,  and  his  ministerial 
abilities  are  said  to  have  been  pre-eminent.  He  also, 
like  his  father,  preached  to  the  Indians  in  their  own 

1  Sparks's  "Library  of  American  Biography." 


2g  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

tongue,  and,  like  the  apostle,  his  faith,  piety,  humility, 
and  zeal,  shone  with  distinguished  lustre.  The  his 
torian  Hammond  says :  "  For  one  of  his  years,  he 
was  nulli  secundus  as  to  literature  and  all  other  gifts, 
both  of  nature  and  grace,  which  made  him  so  gener 
ally  acceptable  to  all  that  had  opportunity  of  partak 
ing  of  his  labors,  or  the  least  acquaintance  with  him." 

Joseph,  the  second  son,  was  born  2oth  of  Decem 
ber,  1638,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College.  He 
received  ordination,  December  23,  1663,  and  the  year 
following  settled  at  Guilford.  Though  not  the  earliest, 
he  was,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  the  first  ordained 
minister  in  Guilford,  having  been  put  in  charge  of  the 
church  in  that  ancient  town  in  1664,  where  he  re 
mained  until  his  death  in  1694.  Rev.  Thomas  Rug- 
gles  says  that  he  was,  "  for  many  years,  the  conspicuous 
minister  of  the  town  of  Guilford,  whose  great  abilities 
as  a  divine,  a  politician,  and  a  physician,  were  justly 
admired,  not  only  among  his  own  people,  but  through 
out  the  colony,  where  his  praises  are  in  the  churches 
to  this  day."  1 

For  many  years  after  the  first  settlement  of  Guil 
ford,  the  dead  were  buried  in  the  central  plot  of  the 
town,  where  the  church  had  been  built,  in  which  the 
people  met  to  worship  with  "prayer  and  psalm." 
Here  his  body  was  laid  to  rest,  but  his  grave,  like  Hal- 
leek's  mother's,  cannot  be  pointed  out,  for  the  ancient 

1  Sprague's  "Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  39 

and  crowded  burial-ground  has  been  transformed  into 
the  beautiful  green — the  graves  have  been  levelled,  the 
stones  removed,  and  thrifty  grass  and  gigantic  trees 
give  no  indication  of  ancestral  dust  beneath.  Ma- 
caulay  "cannot  refrain  from  expressing  his  disgust  at 
the  barbarous  stupidity  which  has  transformed  this 
most  interesting  little  church  "  (St.  Peter's  Chapel,  in 
the  Tower,  London)  "  into  the  likeness  of  a  meeting 
house  in  a  manufacturing  town."  A  feeling  akin  to 
this  must  arise  in  the  breast  of  every  one  who  treasures 
up  the  memory  of  his  ancestors,  when  he  sees  their 
graves  obliterated,  and  their  tombstones,  perhaps, 

"  'Mid  uncouth  rhymes,  and  shapeless  sculpture  decked," 

used  for  flagging  or  for  fences,  or,  it  may  be,  crowded 
into  the  corner  of  some  fashionable  cemetery. 

Should  any  person  inquire  for  the  grave  of  Joseph 
Eliot,  the  reply  would  be,  "  He  was  buried  on  the 
green " — tradition  says  in  the  southwest  part.  A 
descendant  had  in  mind  to  erect  a  monument  to  his 
memory,  and  went  so  far  as  to  compose  an  inscription 
in  rhyme,  the  last  line  of  which  was  to  read  as  follows  : 

"And  was  buried  on  the  green — the  Lord  knows  where." 

His  monument  is,  however,  to  be  found  in  the  his 
tory  of  his  adopted  State,  which  frequently  conferred 
upon  him  positions  of  honor  and  trust,  and  in  one  in- 


-jo  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

stance  rewarded  him  with  a  grant  of  land,  a  proof  that 
he  was  a  pillar  of  the  state  as  well  as  of  the  church. 

Joseph  Eliot  married,  for  his  second  wife,  Mary, 
daughter  of  Hon.  Samuel  Wyllys,  of  Hartford,  Ct. 
She  was  the  grand-daughter  of  Governor  John  Haynes, 
by  his  second  wife,  Mabel  Harlakenden,  who  came  to 
New  England  in  1635,  and  whose  ancestry  has  been 
traced  by  an  enthusiastic  genealogist  to  the  royal 
family  of  Great  Britain.1  It  is,  however,  a  greater 
honor  to  his  descendants,  that  their  ancestor  was  of  the 
family  and  nearly  related  to  one  of  the  purest  patriots 
and  most  eloquent  statesmen  of  England,  and  a  mar 
tyr  to  the  tyranny  of  Charles  the  First — Sir  John 
Eliot  of  glorious  memory. 

Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  eldest  son  of  Joseph,  was  the  dis 
tinguished  divine,  physician,  and  agriculturist  at  Kil- 
lingworth,  now  Clinton,  Conn.  Dr.  Thacher,  in  his 
"  American  Medical  Biography,"  says:  "He  was,  un 
questionably,  the  first  physician  in  his  day  in  Connec 
ticut,  and  was  the  last  clerical  physician  of  eminence 
probably  in  New  England.  He  was  an  excellent  bota 
nist,  and  was  equally  distinguished  as  a  scientific  and 
practical  agriculturist.  He  introduced  the  white  mul 
berry  into  Connecticut,  and  with  it  the  silk-worm ;  and 
published  a  treatise  on  the  subject.  He  was  also  a 
mineralogist,  and,  in  1761,  received  from  the  London 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Arts,  Manufactures, 

1  "  New-England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,"  vol.  xvii. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  3! 

and  Commerce,  a  gold  medal,  as  a  premium  for  his  dis 
covery  of  a  process  of  extracting  iron  from  black  sand. 
He  was  the  personal  friend  and  correspondent  of  Bishop 
Berkeley  and  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  of  several  other 
philosophical  characters,  both  in  Europe  and  America. 
He  was,  however,  in  his  lifetime,  better  known  to  the 
public  as  a  physician,  and  was  very  eminent  for  his 
judgment  and  skill  in  the  management  of  chronic  com 
plaints.  In  these  he  appears  to  have  been  more  ex 
tensively  consulted  than  any  other  physician  in  New 
England ;  frequently  visiting  every  county  of  Connecti 
cut,  and  being  often  called  to  Boston  and  Newport. 
He  was  a  good  linguist,  and,  from  the  libraries  left  by 
him  and  his  contemporaries,  it  is  evident  that  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  reading  and  studying  Hippocrates, 
Galen,  Aretaeas,  etc.,  in  the  originals.  Some  very 
humorous  anecdotes  are  still  related,  which  serve  to 
show  that  he  managed  melancholies  and  maniacs  with 
great  ingenuity  and  success.  He  published  agricul 
tural  essays,  and  devised  various  ways  for  draining 
swamps  in  the  interior,  and  also  for  reclaiming  marshes 
from  the  sea.  He  was  very  peculiarly  industrious  and 
methodical,  and  was  careful  that  whatever  he  under 
took  should  be  well  executed." 

He  "  resided  on  the  main  road  from  New  York  to 
Boston,  and  was  always  visited  by  Dr.  Franklin,  when 
he  was  journeying  to  his  native  town,  as  well  as  by 
most  of  the  literary  and  religious  characters  of  the  day, 


32     .  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

who  always  met  with  a  very  affectionate  reception  in 
his  hospitable  mansion." 

"  An  ardent  friend  of  his  country,  a  great  patron  of 
improvements,"  a  clergyman,  philosopher,  physician, 
and  trustee  of  Yale  College,  his  influence  with  the 
public  was  very  great,  and  his  opinions  and  advice 
were  much  esteemed.  It  is  also  recorded  that  "he 
had  a  turn  of  mind  peculiarly  adapted  for  conversation, 
and  happily  accommodated  to  the  pleasures  of  social 
life.  No  less  agreeably  charming  and  engaging  was 
his  company,  accommodated  to  every  person  under 
every  circumstance ;  nothing  affected,  nothing  assum 
ing  ;  it  was  all  nature  and  shined  with  wisdom ;  that 
perhaps  no  person  ever  left  his  company  dissatisfied, 
or  without  being  pleased  with  it."1  He  died  at  Kil- 
lingworth — a  corruption  of  Kenilworth — on  the  226.  of 
April,  1763,  and  was  styled  by  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Ruggles,  of  Guilford,  who  preached  his  funeral  sermon, 
"  The  great  and  venerable  Dr.  Jared  Eliot." 

Abial,  the  second  son  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot,  was 
born  in  1686.  He  married  Mary,  a  descendant  of 
William  Leete,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  town  of 
Guilford,  who  was  elected  to  the  highest  position  in  the 
New-Haven  Colony,  and  was  subsequently  Governor  of 
the  State  of  Connecticut.  Dr.  Trumbull  says,  "he 
presided  in  times  of  the  greatest  difficulty,  yet  always 
with  such  integrity  and  wisdom,  as  to  meet  the  public 

1  Sprague's  "Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  33 

approbation."  Of  Abial,  who  was  a  farmer  in  Guilford, 
a  Revolutionary  soldier,  not  many  years  dead,  is  au 
thority  for  the  statement,  that  he  was  noted  for  his 
powers  of  versification.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  amus 
ing  his  friends  by  making  rhymes  with  any  word  they 
might  mention.  Other  members  of  the  Eliot  family 
have  possessed  the  same  trait,  but  it  was  not  until  their 
blood  was  mingled  with  that  of  Israel  Halleck,  that  the 
poet  was  born. 

Nathaniel,  the  eldest  son  of  Abial,  who  died  in 
1776,  was  born  August  15,  1728,  and,  like  his  father, 
was  a  farmer.  He  married  Beulah,  daughter  of  Jo 
seph  Parmelee,  of  Guilford.  They  had  two  children, 
William,  who  died  unmarried  in  1833,  and  Mary, 
born  May  i,  1762,  the  mother  of  the  poet,  described 
to  the  writer  by  one  who  was  at  her  wedding,  as  being 
"plump  as  a  partridge,  and  as  pretty  a  girl  as  there 
was  in  Guilford."  Miss  Eliot  was  a  lady  of  superior 
intellect,  and  was  noted  for  her  love  of  reading,  with  a 
particular  fondness  for  poetry,  of  which,  both  before 
and  after  marriage,  she  read  every  thing  that  came  in 
her  way.  She  added  to  her  native  gifts  a  better  edu 
cation  than  young  women  generally  had  in  those  early 
days,  and  heartily  appreciated  the  poetical  genius  of 
her  gifted  son,  although  she  died  before  he  gave  to  the 
world  those  poems  which  will  be  by  his  countrymen 
cherished  "  heir-looms  forever." 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck  was,  therefore,  as  will  be  ob- 


34  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

served  by  the  foregoing,  of  the  sixth  and  seventh 
generations  from  Peter  Hallock  and  the  Rev.  John 
Eliot,  the  order  being  as  follows  : 

1.  PETER  HALLOCK,  i.  Rev.  JOHN  ELIOT, 

2.  WILLIAM  HALLOCK,         2.  Rev.  JOSEPH  ELIOT, 

3.  JOHN  HALLOCK,  3.  ABIAL  ELIOT, 

4.  PETER  HALLOCK,  2d,      4.  NATHANIEL  ELIOT, 

5.  PETER  HALLOCK,  3d,       5.  MARY  ELIOT. 

6.  ISRAEL  HALLECK. 

It  is  worthy  of  mention  that  the  American  Hallecks 
as  a  race  have  retained  the  characteristics  of  their  com 
mon  ancestor.  The  sturdy,  self-reliant,  and  religious 
traits  of  character,  as  well  as  the  stalwart  form  of  the 
intrepid  Peter,  are  strongly  developed  in  the  family  to 
this  day.  They  are  no  less  remarkable  for  their  great 
longevity  than  for  their  fine  physique.  The  poet's 
father  was  six  feet,  many  other  members  of  the 
family  have  been  even  taller ;  and,  like  the  courageous 
Pilgrim,  noted  for  their  great  physical  strength.  Ed 
ward  Hallock,  a  son  of  one  of  the  poet's  ancestors,  had 
nine  daughters,  all  large  and  handsome  ladies.  Six 
were  Quaker  preachers,  of  whom  one  who  saw  them 
together  at  a  Friends'  meeting  said,  they  were  the 
noblest  and  fairest  looking  women  she  had  ever  seen 
grouped  together.  Halleck  often  spoke  with  pride  and 
pleasure  of  a  venerable  kinswoman  of  fourscore  and 
ten,  also  a  Quaker  preacher,  as  the  most  dignified  and 
handsome  old  lady  he  had  ever  met.  The  famous 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  35 

divines,  Jeremiah  and  Moses  Hallock,  the  well-remem 
bered  editor,  Gerard  Hallock,  and  Henry  Wager 
Halleck,  late  General-in-Chief  of  the  United  States 
Armies,  are  all  connections  of  the  poet.  Several  mem 
bers  of  the  family  were  killed  in  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  also  in  the  second  contest  with  Great  Britain, 
and  in  our  late  war  many  of  his  kinsmen  fell ;  among 
them,  three  of  his  own  immediate  branch  of  the  family 
gave  their  young  lives  for  their  country,  of  whom  a 
touching  memorial  now  lies  before  me,  entitled  "The 
Fighting  Quakers."  One,  as  handsome  and  dashing  a 
cavalry  officer  as  could  be  seen  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  fell  in  a  successful  charge  at  Front  Royal, 
another  poured  out  his  life's  blood  at  Gettysburg,  while 
the  third  sank  a  victim  to  the  horrors  of  Libby  Prison, 
Richmond.  Another  kinsman,  Barnabas  Hallock,  has 
lately  published  a  volume  of  poems  that  does  no  dis 
credit  to  the  name.  Israel  Halleck  lived  to  the  age  of 
eighty-one,  and  his  mother  lacked  but  three  days  of 
having  lived  a  century;  while  many  other  members 
of  the  family  have  survived  even  beyond  that  period 
of  time. 

In  addition  to  the  distinguished  members  of  the 
poet's  maternal  ancestry  already  mentioned,  many 
others  might  be  cited,  were  it  necessary.  The  annals 
of  New  England  exhibit  a  record  of  valuable  services 
rendered  by  his  mother's  family,  and  the  catalogues  of 
Harvard  and  Yale  Colleges  contain  a  long  list  of  gradu- 


^6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

ates  of  the  name  of  Eliot,  many  of  whom,  like  the  poet, 
claim  kindred  with  the  Apostle.  The  Eliots  also,  like 
the  Hallocks,  exhibit  a  noble  war  record  of  gallant  ser 
vices  performed  on  land  and  sea.  Both  lines  of  his  an 
cestry  have  retained  their  landed  possessions  for  more 
than  two  centuries.  A  Hallock  owns  a  portion  of  the 
original  purchase  made  by  Peter  from  the  Indians  in 
1640;  and  the  poet's  cousin,  Charles  Eliot,  owns  and 
occupies  the  same  ground  bought  by  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Eliot  on  his  arrival  at  Guilford,  in  1664,  and  on  which 
he  built  the  house  in  which  he  lived  and  died.  The 
original  mansion  was  removed  to  give  place  to  the 
present  residence,  now  nearly  a  century  old.  In  one 
of  its  spacious  rooms  is  to  be  seen  an  antique  buffet 
that  came  from  England  in  the  same  ship  that  brought 
to  these  shores,  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  years 
ago,  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians. 

In  pausing  to  give  some  account  of  Guilford,  the 
poet's  birthplace,  I  trust  I  shall  not  be  charged  with 
rivalling  the  Greek  traveller,  who  began  his  chapter  on 
Athens  with  a  disquisition  on  the  formation  of  the 
Acropolis  rock.  The  poet,  on  more  than  one  occa 
sion,  playfully  boasted  to  the  writer  that  there  were 
none  but  gentlemen  in  his  native  town.  Its  early  his 
tory  shows,  whatever  may  be  the  character  of  the  Guil 
ford  people  of  the  present  day,  that  the  town  was  cer 
tainly  settled  by  a  very  superior  class  of  young  men 
collected  in  England,  chiefly  from  the  counties  of  Kent 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  37 

and  Sussex,  with  a  few  from  Huntingdon  and  Cam 
bridgeshire  ;  all  were  educated,  and  several  were  gradu 
ates  of  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 
They  embarked  for  the  New  World  in  company  with 
the  Rev.  Henry  Whitfield,  who  had  been  a  clergyman 
of  the  Church  of  England,  accompanying  the  eloquent 
preacher  from  a  feeling  of  attachment  to  him  and  to 
his  teaching.  He  was  a  younger  son  of  an  eminent 
lawyer  of  the  courts  of  Westminster ;  and,  after  gradu 
ating  at  Oxford,  was  first  fitted  for  the  bar  at  the  Inns 
of  Court,  at  London.  His-own  predilections,  however, 
induced  him  to  become  a  clergyman,  and  he  obtained 
the  rich  living  of  Ockley,  in  Surrey,  where  he  officiated 
for  twenty  years.  He  became  the  friend  and  associate 
of  such  men  as  Cotton,  Hooker,  Goodwin,  Nye,  and 
Davenport,  which  led  to  his  being  cited  before  the 
Court  of  Star-Chamber  and  Bishop  Laud,  so  that 
eventually  he  became  a  Congregationalist,  and  found  it 
convenient,  if  not  necessary,  to  depart  hastily  for  New 
England.  He  had  formed  an  acquaintance  with  a 
number  of  young  gentlemen,  who  had  become  at 
tached  to  his  ministrations,  and  they  organized  a  com 
pany  for  the  settlement  of  a  plantation  on  the  north 
shore  of  Long  Island  Sound,  in  connection  with  George 
Fenwick's  company.  They  assembled  at  London, 
in  May,  1639,  and  sailed  together  in  a  vessel  of 
350  tons,  for  New  Haven,  in  company  with  Governor 
Fenwick  and  his  newly-married  wife,  the  widow  of 


2 8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Lord  Boteler.  While  on  shipboard,  on  the  ist  of 
June,  1639,  Whitfield  drew  up  and  signed  their  planta 
tion  covenant,  which  is  still  preserved  by  the  Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Society,  at  Boston. 

After  a  long  voyage,  they  arrived  at  New  Haven, 
about  the  ist  of  July.  Mr.  Whitfield  and  his  company 
purchased  of  the  Indians  in  August  the  lands  comprising 
the  present  town  of  Guilford,  employing  the  Rev.  John 
Higginson — who  soon  after  became  his  son-in-law — as 
an  interpreter.  The  contract  with  the  Indians  was 
made  August  26,  1639.  The  deed  is  dated  September 
30,  1639.  These  papers,  with  a  map,  made  by  the  In 
dians,  of  the  territory  sold  and  the  coast  adjoining,  are 
preserved  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  Mr. 
Whitfield  and  his  company  commenced  the  settlement 
immediately,  and  soon  after  Mr.  Higginson  came  to 
the  new  settlement;  and  in  the  organization  of  the 
church  he  was  constituted  one  of  the  seven  pillars  on 
which  the  church  was  founded.  These  were  the 

Rev.  HENRY  WHITFIELD. 

Rev.  JOHN  HIGGINSON,  afterward  of  Salem,  and  at  one 
time  the  first  minister  perhaps  of  New  England. 

SAMUEL  DISBOROW,  the  magistrate,  and  afterward  the 
famous  Lord  Chancellor,  whose  life  is  given  in  No 
ble's  members  of  the  Cromwell  family. 

Rev.  WILLIAM  LEETE,  afterward  Governor,  first  of  the 
New-Haven  Colony  and  next  of  Connecticut  Colony. 

Rev.  JACOB  SHEAFFE,  afterward  the  wealthiest  merchant 
of  Boston. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  39 

Rev.  JOHN  MEPHAM,  the  friend  and  relative  of  Governor 
Fen  wick. 

Rev.  JOHN  HOADLEY,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  and 
grandfather  of  Bishop  Benjamin  Hoadley  and  Arch 
bishop  John  Hoadley,  of  Armagh. 

This  was  June  19,  1643,  O.  S.  Mr.  Whitfield 
returned  to  England,  November,  1650.  Mr.  Higgin- 
son  was  his  successor,  and  remained  until  1660,  when 
he  went  to  Salem,  Mass.  The  Rev.  Joseph  Eliot 
succeeded  him,  and  was  settled  in  1664,  remaining 
until  his  death,  May  24,  1694. 

The  first  settlers  of  Guilford  came  to  New  England 
when  the  hold  of  the  Dissenters  was  broken  from  the 
mother-country,  so  that  they  settled  the  place  as 
an  independent  republic.  They  drew  up  their  consti 
tution,  which  is  on  record  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr. 
Disborow,  and  entirely  independent  of  any  other  power 
whatever.  This  beautiful  document  is  complete  in  all 
its  parts;  providing  for  its  executive,  legislative,  and 
judiciary  departments,  the  order  of  its  courts,  manner 
of  holding  its  meetings,  provisions  for  electorship,  etc. 

The  same  spirit  of  local  independence  has  survived 
to  the  present  day,  and  characterized  the  inhabitants 
during  all  the  past,  and  it  appears  in  the  writings  of 
the  poet,  of  which  a  striking  instance  is  the  fragment 
"Connecticut,"  which  is  more  particularly  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  characteristics  of  Guilford. 


CHAPTER    II. 
1790-1810. 

Birth  and  Boyhood.— At  School.— Love  of  Reading.— Passion  for  Poetry.— 
Juvenile  Verses. — Clerk  with  Andrew  Eliot. — Visits  New  York. — 
Enters  the  Militia. — Teaches  an  Evening  School. — Epistle  to  Carlos 
Menie. — The  Rainbow  and  other  Poems. 

ilHE  second  child  and  eldest  son  of  Israel  and 
Mary  Eliot  Halleck,  called  FiTZ-GREENE,  was 
born  July  8,  1790,  in  a  pretty  cottage  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Guilford  village  green,  at  that  time  the  common 
burial-place  of  the  town.  The  name  Fitz  was  given  to 
the  child  in  honor  of  a  friend  of  his  father's ;  his  second 
name  he  received  from  his  grandmother  Halleck,  nee 
Annie  Green,  who,  at  her  death,  lacked  but  three  days 
of  being  a  century  old,  and  to  the  last  read  and  recited 
passages  from  the  "  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  and  other  of 
Scott's  metrical  romances.  When  two  years  old,  an 
accident  happened  to  Fitz-Greene,  from  which  he  ever 
afterward  suffered.  Two  drunken  militiamen,  on  a 
"  training-day,"  passing  by  his  father's  door,  near 
which  they  saw  him  at  play,  thought  they  would  aston- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^ 

ish  the  little  fellow  by  discharging  their  guns,  loaded 
only  with  powder.  They  did  so,  one  of  them,  unfor 
tunately,  placing  his  piece  so  near  the  side  of  the 
child's  head,  that  it  ruined  the  hearing  in  his  left  ear 
for  life.  Among  the  many  ineffectual  experiments 
made  in  after-years  to  restore  the  organ,  he,  in  1820, 
tried  the  moxa1  remedy,  highly  recommended  by  an 
eminent  French  physician  then  in  New  York,  who  per 
formed  the  operation.  The  burning  cylinder  of  cotton, 
saturated  with  oil,  was  applied  behind  the  ear,  and, 
after  scorching  the  skin  for  some  time,  was  withdrawn, 
the  poet  inquiring  of  the  doctor,  "If  it  was  done  to  a 
turn  ! " 

Among  the  few  remembered  incidents  of  the  poet's 
childhood,  is,  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  going  every 
afternoon  to  the  Guilford  district  school,  and  escorting 
his  sister  Maria  home.  On  one  occasion,  a  mischievous 
young  cripple,  called  Jack  Ward,  who,  it  appears,  had 
a  habit  of  frightening  the  girls  when  they  issued  out 
from  the  school-house,  by  raising  his  crutch  in  a 
threatening  manner,  as  if  about  to  bring  it  down  upon 
their  heads,  unfortunately  for  himself,  made  one  of  his 
feints  against  Maria  Halleck,  when  the  chivalrous  little 
fellow  of  four  summers,  supposing  his  sister  to  be  in 
danger,  seized  a  hammer  which  happened  to  be  at 
hand — the  property  of  a  carpenter  at  work  near  the 

1  Moxa  is  a  term  derived  from  the  Chinese,  to  designate  a  cylinder  of 
cotton,  which  is  employed  in  a  state  of  combustion  to  cauterize  the  skin. 


42  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

spot — rushed  forward,  and  struck  the  boy  Ward  such  a 
blow  as  knocked  him  to  the  ground. 

Fitz-Greene  was  sent  to  school  when  he  was  six 
years  of  age,  and  a  year  later  he  took  part  in  one  of 
the  public  exhibitions,  or  "quarter  days,"  as  they  were 
termed,  an  honor  not  usually  shared  in  by  lads  of  his 
tender  years.  In  the  presence  of  a  large  audience — 
his  proud  mother  and  happy  sister  among  the  number 
— the  diminutive  scholar  of  seven  summers,  with  his 
bright  morning  face,  was  mounted  on  a  chair,  and  deliv 
ered  with  great  success  the  famous  little  poem,  so  often 
attributed  to  Edward  Everett,  but  which  was  written  by 
a  distant  relative,  the  versatile  David  Everett,  begin 
ning — 

"You'd  scarce  expect  one  of  my  age 
To  speak  in  public  on  the  stage." 

As  soon  as  he  was  taught  to  write,  he  took  to 
rhyming.  As  one  of  his  school-companions  remarked 
to  the  writer,  "He  couldn't  help  it."  The  following 
lines  were  written  when  a  mere  child,  probably  pre 
vious  to  the  year  1800.  The  first  two  pieces  illustrate 
the  young  poet's  studious  habits,  mentioning,  as  they 
do,  so  many  persons  and  events  of  which,  at  that  day, 
few  lads  of  his  tender  years  would  have  been  likely  to 
possess  any  knowledge.  The  third  of  his  juvenile  pro 
ductions  is  unfinished,  and,  if  of  a  less  historic,  is  of 
a  more  affecting  character,  than  the  lines  on  New 
England  and  his  View  of  the  United  States  : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  40 


A  VIEW  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

From  wild  Canada's  cold  and  frozen  shores 
To  where  the  gentle  Mississippi  pours 
Along  the  tide,  as  through  the  woods  it  bends, 
So  far  the  seat  of  liberty  extends  : 
Here  all  the  gentle  virtues  are  combined 
Which  form  the  pure  and  the  enlightened  mind ; 
Here  live  content  the  hero  and  the  sage, 
Here  the  old  soldier  droops  under  his  age, 
Not,  as  in  Europe,  wretched,  forced  to  roam 
Without  a  shelter  and  without  a  home  ; 
But  here  each  peasant  for  himself  has  got, 
And  for  his  aged  sire,  a  little  cot, 
Where,  blessed  with  happiness,  he  lives  secure 
From  tyranny  and  from  ambition's  lure. 
While  peace  does  crown  America's  domain, 
And  while  all  Europe  is  in  peace  again, 
Here  let  me  sit  and  ask  the  smiling  fates 
To  heap  up  blessings  on  the  United  States ; 
Here  let  me  sit  and  view  the  peaceful  band 
Of  towns  and  countries  scattered  round  this  land. 
First  with  my  native  State  I  will  begin, 
The  State  which  I  was  born  and  nourished  in. 
Ah  !  fair  Connecticut,  all  thy  sisters'  pride, 
Through  whose  majestic  woods  large  rivers  glide, 
Thou  to  thy  country  hast  great  heroes  brought, 
Who  for  thy  liberty  have  bravely  fought. 
Putnam  and  Wooster  ever  grace  thy  name, 
And  Humphries'  pen  does  shout  aloud  thy  fame. 


44 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

From  thee  we  turn  to  Massachusetts'  plains, 
Where  wealth  and  plenty  show  the  laboring  swains. 
Here  in  vast  flocks  a  numerous  nation  strays, 
And  endless  herds  the  beauteous  meadow  graze, 
Where  smiling  plenty  crowns  the  laborer's  pain, 
And  blooming  beauty  weds  the  industrious  swain. 
Here  first  to  quench  her  once-loved  freedom's  flame, 
With  their  proud  fleets  Britannia's  warriors  came ; 
Here,  sure  to  conquer,  she  began  her  fires, 
Here  sent  her  lords,  her  lordlings,  and  her  squires, 
All,  all  too  weak  to  effect  the  vast  design 
That  swelled,  poor  Gage,  that  puny  heart  of  thine. 
But  let  us  turn  to  Hampshire's  blooming  fields, 
Where  earth  all,  all  her  virgin  sweetness  yields  ; 
Where  the  blithe  peasant,  rising  wfth  the  dawn, 
Drives  his  white  flocks  to  yonder  verdant  lawn ; 
Here,  seated  down  under  some  shady  tree, 
He  smiles  and  says,  "  None  are  so  happy  as  me." 
And  when  the  setting  sun  invites  him  home, 
He  to  his  grazing  flocks  does  cheerful  come, 
And,  singing,  pens  them  safe  within  their  fold, 
And  thinks  himself  richer  than  all  the  gold 
That  lies  on  Peru's  plains.     Then  hastens  home 
And  to  his  thatched  cottage  does  safe  come ; 
Where,  joining  his  gay  children  on  the  hearth, 
He  shares  in  all  their  innocence  and  mirth. 
His  wife,  the  faithful  partner  of  his  cares, 
The  homely  feast  for  her  husband  prepares. 
Thus  living,  cheerful,  gay,  and  innocent, 
The  peasant  always  is  with  his  lot  content. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  45 

From  him  we  turn  to  Vermont's  verdant  mount, 

Where  health,  content,  and  innocence  are  found ; 

Thy  lofty  woods  uprising,  mock  the  sky, 

And  charm  the  curious  observer's  eye. 

Bennington's  plains  thy  wondrous  courage  prove, 

While  the  Green  Mountain  echoes  it  above. 

But  mount,  my  muse,  expand  thy  beauteous  wings, 

And  fly  where  Vernon  courts  Potomac's  springs, 

Where  once  Columbia's  glorious  chief  did  live, 

His  country's  glory,  which,  when  he  died,  did  give 

A  tear  of  tribute  to  his  memory  due, 

And  o'er  his  grave  a  wreath  of  laurel  threw. 

O  Washington  !  thrice  ever-glorious  name, 

Still  always  foremost  on  the  list  of  fame, 

Columbia,  weeping,  mourned  for  thy  loss, 

But  thou  still  livest  within  the  hearts  of  us. 

And  O,  great  God !  when  future  foes  draw  near, 

May  future  Washingtons  like  him  appear  ! 

And  ah !  Virginia,  whose  fruitful  soil 

Produced  the  man  who  shared  in  all  our  toil, 

In  all  our  danger.     But  enough  is  said — 

No,  not  enough  to  grace  the  hero's  head ; 

Volumes  cannot  contain  his  wondrous  deeds ; 

Then  my  poor  pen  more  inspiration  needs. 

Princeton  to  the  skies  his  name  shall  raise, 

While  Yorktown's  siege  shall  shout  aloud  his  praise. 

O,  Yorktown !  on  thy  plains  great  deeds  were  done 

By  Laurens,  D'Estaing,  and  Washington. 

O  !  Laurens,  on  these  verdant  plains  thou'st  died, 

Thy  country's  champion,  thy  father's  pride : 


46  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

A  youthful  hero  slain  before  thy  time, 

In  all  thy  glory  and  in  all  thy  prime. 

After  thy  death  fair  peace  was  soon  restored, 

And  every  warrior  sheathed  up  his  sword : 

Fair  peace  continued  till  a  bloody  train 

Of  Gallia's  traitors  crossed  the  Western  main, 

Attacked  our  commerce  and  dispersed  our  trade, 

And  all  our  glory  in  oblivion  laid, 

Until  Columbia,  swearing  to  be  free, 

Attacked  these  pirates  of  the  raging  sea, 

Dispersed  them,  drove  them  to  their  native  land, 

And  there,  fixed  there  forever,  bade  them  stand, 

Ne'er  to  invade  Columbia's  blest  right, 

Nor  mock  her  infant  state  nor  rising  might. 

And  now,  while  peace  does  fair  Columbia  kiss, 

Here  let  me  sit  and  ponder  on  thy  bliss. 

With  galling  fetters  and  with  iron  chains 

Once  thou  wast  scourged  by  England's  perjured  trains; 

Thy  independent  spirit  would  not  them  bear, 

And  now  to  stop  them  thou  didst  soon  prepare. 

Great  Britain  seeing  this,  sent  over  fleets, 

Which  crossing  the  sea,  fair  Boston  harbor  meets. 

They  there  did  murderous  scenes  of  blood  commit, 

The  first  of  March,  I  say,  dares  witness  it. 

Now  on  the  mount  Columbia's  sons  are  seen, 

Brave  Warren  striding  firm  with  glorious  mien, 

Britannia's  warriors  marching  on  the  plain, 

And  certain  victory  expect  to  gain. 

But  ah !  alas,  they  gained  their  victory  dear, 

Thrice  were  repulsed,  and  thrice  again  drew  near. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  47 

But  now  Dame  Fortune  on  Columbia  frowns, 
Her  Warren  dead,  lay  weltering  on  the  ground. 
Her  valiant  sons  exhausted,  weep, 
And  leave  the  field  unto  Britannia. 
Soon  after  this,  Columbia's  sons  declared 
Their  independence,  and  Great  Britain  dared. 
After  a  struggle  of  seven  long  years, 
Britannia's  army  at  length  disappears. 
Tired  of  the  struggle  and  longing  for  his  ease, 
The  British  king  at  length  agrees  for  peace. 
Long  has  it  remained,  and  long  may  it  remain, 
While  virtue  with  Columbia's  sons  does  reign. 
And  now,  while  health  and  vigor  still  remain, 
Toil,  toil,  my  lads,  to  purchase  honest  gain ; 
Shun  idleness,  shun  pleasure's  tempting  snare, 
A  youth  of  folly  breeds  an  age  of  care. 

THE   HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Where  the  Green  Mountain  lifts  its  head  on  high, 
And  where  Connecticut's  silver  streams  do  lie, 
Where  woods  for  miles  do  cover  all  the  ground, 
And  where  the  frogs  do  make  a  noisy  sound, 
Even  this  our  forefathers  chose  for  their  abode, 
And  left  their  country  to  enjoy  their  God. 
Persecuted  till  they  were  most  of  them  dead, 
For  their  religion  they  to  Holland  fled ; 
But  there  the  holy  Sabbath  was  profaned, 
And  their  young  children  vicious  ways  were  trained. 
In  this  their  misery  they  formed  a  plan, 


48  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

Made  by  a  bold  and  enterprising  man, 

Which  was  to  leave  their  much-loved  home  and  go 

Where  the  brown  Indian  travels  o'er  the  snow, 

And,  graced  with  spoils  of  many  a  warrior  slain, 

Brave  in  his  mind,  he  traverses  the  plain. 

A  ship  is  hired,  and  soon  on  board  they  go, 

And  leave  the  place  where  they  had  seen  such  woe  ; 

A  long  time  passed — at  length  they  get  on  shore 

And  on  their  knees  their  thanks  to  God  do  pour ; 

Now  round  the  coast  they  cast  their  eager  eyes, 

And  saw  all  round  them  naught  but  wilds  and  skies. 

Their  nearest  neighbors  Indian  hostile  tribes, 

Not  to  be  stopped  but  by  force  or  bribes  ; 

These  they  had  not.     Weakened  by  fatigues, 

Which  they  had  got  by  sailing  so  many  leagues  ; 

Provisions  had  the  ground  covered  with  snow, 

Their  weary  limbs  ready  to  sink  with  woe ; 

These  they  surmounted,  and  chose  for  the  first  year 

A  man  good,  just,  with  piety  sincere, 

For  Governor.     They  began  to  look  for  now 

Some  shelter  to  cover  them  from  snow ; 

Some  days  after,  they  arrived  at  a  place 

Which  was  a  very  good  thing  in  their  case, 

Which  they  call  Plymouth  in  commemoration 

Of  the  last  town  they  had  left  in  their  nation. 

They  behaved  prudent,  not  setting  at  defiance 

The  Indians  which  brought  their  friends  and  allies. 

In  the  year  sixteen  hundred  arose 

A  great  conspiracy,  made  by  some  Indian  foes ; 

But  on  the  night  when  it  should  have  been  done, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  49 

An  Indian,  named  John  Sagamore,  did  come, 

Revealed  the  plot  and  saved  the  English  lives, 

Their  sons,  their  daughters,  fathers,  friends,  and  wives. 

The  English,  alarmed,  great  preparations  began, 

And  fired  the  great  guns,  so  that  the  Indians  ran 

Dispersed,  made  peace,  and  themselves  declared 

Friends  of  the  people  to  whom  they  thus  had  done. 

In  peace  they  have  since  lived,  but  they  now  have  gone 

Where  Susquehanna's  rivulets  do  run, 

Nor  left  the  English  in  any  apprehension 

Of  an  attack  from  their  once  warlike  nation. 

The  Revolution  set  the  Americans  free 

From  Parliamentary  and  British  tyranny. 

Thus,  by  their  industry,  rude  wilds  were  made 

From  a  barren  wilderness  to  a  fruitful  shade. 

Under  a  good  government  and  in  a  righteous  cause 

They  live  in  peace,  protected  by  their  laws. 


THE  FORTUNATE   FAMILY. 

On  Vermont's  hills,  remote  from  riot, 
A  happy  pair  once  lived  in  quiet. 
Their  names  did  through  the  country  sound, 
As  good  and  just  they  passed  around. 
Two  boys  they  had,  two  girls  likewise, 
With  rosy  cheeks  and  fine  blue  eyes ; 
An  homely  cot,  shaded  by  trees, 
A  little  brook,  well  stored  with  geese, 
A  garden  filled  with  vegetables, 
An  orchard  rich  with  pippin  apples, 
3 


50  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Composed  their  wealth,  composed  their  store, 

No  less  they  wished,  nor  yet  no  more. 

Thus  years  rolled  on,  and  nothing  came 

That  stopped  their  peace  or  'sturbed  their  fame. 

At  length  a  chaise,  the  first  they'd  seen, 

Came  rolling  on  the  verdant  green. 

Dick  saw  it  first  and  holload,  "  Come, 

Come  see  this  thing — oh  run,  pray  run !  " 

Away  ran  Bill  with  all  his  might — 

Sail  followed  him>  to  see  the  sight. 

At  length  the  chaise  drove  up  to  the  house, 

And,  stopping,  out  jumped  man  and  spouse. 

A  servant  came  and  ope'd  the  door 

(Mrs.  Bonce  had  entered  the  room  before), 

When  straight  came  in  two  of  her  friends, 

Namely,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rigmalends. 

After  their  usual  salutations, 

They  'gan  to  talk  about  their  stations. 

Mrs.  Bonce  began :  "I  live  a  life 

Remote  from  care,  remote  from  strife ; 

Four  children  I  have,  look  and  see 

If  you  don't  think  they  look  like  me." 

"  They  are  all  handsome,  it  is  true, 

But  that  one  there  is  most  like  you ; 

If  you  are  willing,  that  there  one 

Shall  live  with  us  at  Bennington." 

At  this  the  father  in  was  called, 

And  Dick  immediately  at  him  bawled : 

"  O,  father !  pray,  pray  let  me  go 

And  live  with  him — oh,  don't  say  no  !  " 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^ 

The  father  soon  gave  his  consent, 

And  in  the  carriage  off  Dick  went. 

As  soon  as  he  had  gone  away, 

Bill  said  that  now  he  would  not  stay, 

And  said  he  did  not  think  it  fair 

That  he  should  stay  and  Dick  go  there. 

Determined  not  to  stay  at  home, 

He  took  his  clothes  and  off  did  come. 

He  reached  a  ship,  to  his  great  joy, 

And  got  on  board  as  cabin-boy, 

Where  we  shall  leave  him  for  to  see 

What  happened  to  the  family. 

As  soon  as  they  found  that  Bill  had  gone, 

His  mother  round  the  house  did  run, 

Screaming,  yelling, 

Of  Fitz-Greene's  boyhood  it  may  be  said,  as  would 
be  true  of  his  whole  career,  that  it  was  uneventful. 
As  a  lad  he  was  noticeable  for  the  same  quiet,  studious, 
refined  habits  and  associations  which  characterized  his 
mature  years.  He  had  no  taste  for  the  rough  sports 
and  adventures  in  which  most  boys  find  delight,  but 
preferred  to  wander  alone  in  the  fields  and  woods,  by 
the  river's  banks,  or  on  the  shores  of  Long  Island 
Sound,  with  a  copy  of  Campbell's  poems  or  some 
other  favorite  volume,  with  which  he  would  beguile 
the  hours.  The  only  boyish  pastime  in  which  he 
took  part  with  the  other  lads  was  in  a  mild  game  of 
marbles,  or  a  quiet  fishing  excursion  in  one  of  the 


52  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

streams  that  wind  their  tortuous  course  through  Guil- 
ford.  He  was  the  best  scholar  in  the  school,  and  a 
very  great  favorite  with  the  teacher,  Samuel  Johnson, 
a  gentleman  by  birth  and  a  graduate  of  Yale  College. 
During  Fitz-Greene's  whole  career  at  school,  he  invari 
ably  knew  his  lessons,  and  was  never  on  any  occasion 
called  up  for  misconduct  or  delinquency  of  any  descrip 
tion.  Many  a  pleasant  ramble  did  the  master  and 
scholar  take  together  after  school-hours,  the  gentle 
and  diffident  boy  drinking  in  with  eagerness  the  teach 
er's  conversation  about  poetry  and  other  literary  topics. 
The  first  volume,  aside  from  his  school-books,  which 
the  young  poet  ever  possessed,  was  a  copy  of  Camp 
bell's  "Pleasures  of  Hope,"  presented  to  him  by  his 
attached  teacher,  Samuel  Johnson. 

In  the  story  of  the  life  of  a  fellow-townsman,1  whose 
sister  became  the  wife  of  Lyman  Beecher,  in  1 799,  oc 
curs  the  following  mention  of  the  youthful  poet : 
"  Among  the  lay  visitors  at  Nutplains  at  that  period, 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck  was  one  who  excited  much  inter 
est.  He  was  a  young  lad  of  very  modest  and  pleasing 
demeanor,  and  of  remarkably  precocious  talents.  His 
earliest  poetical  efforts  were  submitted  to  the  critics  at 
Nutplains,2  and  highly  commended.  Many  pieces, 
which  he  did  not  consider  as  possessing  sufficient  merit 

*  "  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Samuel  E.  Foote."     By  his  brother,  John  P. 
Foote. 

2  The  residence  of  the  Foote  family,  near  Guilford. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  53 

to  be  included  among  his  collected  works,  were  pre 
served,  and  some  of  them  published  many  years  after 
ward.  They  were  more  highly  estimated  by  the  public 
than  by  the  author." 

Speaking  of  those  days,  Halleck  said  to  a  friend : 
"  I  fastened  like  a  tiger  upon  every  romance  and  col 
lection  of  poetry  that  I  could  lay  my  hands  on."  The 
poet  appears  to  have  used  almost  the  identical  lan 
guage  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who,  in  his  autobiography, 
remarks  :  "  I  fastened  also  upon  every  collection  of  old 
songs  or  romances  which  chance  threw  in  my  way,  or 
which  scrutiny  was  able  to  discover  on  the  dusty  shelves 
of  James  Sibbald's  circulating  library  in  the  Parliament 
Close."  Books  in  the  days  of  Halleck's  boyhood  were 
less  common  in  country  towns  than  at  present,  and 
so,  after  reading  every  thing  contained  in  the  family 
library,  Fitz-Greene  had  recourse  to  a  public  collection, 
of  which  he  once  assured  me  that  he  had  read  every 
book,  as  his  father  had  done  before  him.  The  Guil- 
ford  Library  contained,  among  its  four  hundred  vol 
umes,  the  works  of  many  of  the  standard  English  poets 
and  novelists,  essayists,  and  historians,  with  other  vol 
umes  published  prior  to  1800.  The  old  dog-eared  and 
well-thumbed  copies  of  Goldsmith  and  Gibbon,  Jo- 
sephus  and  Joseph  Andrews,  Pope  and  Plutarch,  of 
Shakespeare  and  Smollett,  with  numerous  less-used 
and  heavy  volumes  of  still  heavier  sermons,  by  old  and 
approved  British  and  New-England  divines,  are  still  to 


54  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

be  seen  over  a  grocer's  shop  at  Guilford,  now  quite  out 
of  date,  forgotten,  and  fallen  into  disuse,  and  covered 
with  dust  to  such  an  extent,  that  plain,  gilt,  marble,  or 
red-edged  volumes,  present  one  uniform  dull,  dingy 
aspect. 

The  verses  which  follow  are  evidently  more  mature 
productions  than  the  three  pieces  already  given,  and 
were  written  in  the  poet's  twelfth  year.  The  first  is 
addressed  to  his  sister,  the  title  running  as  follows : 
"  Inscribed  with  all  reverence  to  Miss  Maria  Halleck, 
by  her  brother,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,"  and  is  dated 
May  20,  1803  : 

Stern  winter  is  gone  :  no  more  it  snows, 

But  lambkins  briskly  play ; 
They  skip  about  the  verdant  fields, 

And  hail  returning  May. 

The  robin  sits  on  yonder  bough 

And  tunes  his  whistling  lay, 
While  sweetly  throbs  his  little  throat 

To  hail  returning  May. 

The  sun,  just  rising  in  the  east, 

New  gilds  the  smiling  day ; 
With  noises  gay  the  hills  resound, 

And  hail  returning  May. 

The  plains  are  dotted  in  verdure  green, 
The  hills  and  dales  look  gay ; 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  cc 

The  shepherd  sings  along  the  plain, 
And  hails  returning  May. 

Maria  rose  at  early  dawn, 

And  took  her  lonely  way 
Where  bleating  herds  skip  lightly  round, 

And  hail  returning  May. 

Maria,  gayest  of  the  plain, 

To  you  I  tune  my  lay ; 
May  you  fore'er  enjoy  the  sweets 

Of  verdant,  blooming  May. 


EVENING. 

How  sweet  along  the  green  gay  turf  to  rove 
When  twilight  spreads  her  mantle  o'er  the  grove ; 
When  down  the  western  hills  the  sun  retires, 
And  evening  dewdrops  cool  his  noonday  fires  ! 
How  sweet  to  view  upon  the  mountain's  brow 
The  grazing  ox,  the  loudly-lowing  cow, 
The  milkmaid,  with  her  overflowing  pail 
Upon  her  head,  loud  singing  down  the  vale ; 
The  feathered  songster's  cheerful  songs  so  gay, 
The  moon's  pale  beams  that  dart  a  faintful  ray ; 
The  purpling  rill,  as  down  the  hill  it  falls, 
Meandering  slow  along  the  cottage  walls  ; 
The  flowers  which  deck  the  field,  the  hill,  and  dale  ; 
Each  mountain-rose  and  lily  of  the  vale, 


^6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

And  all  the  charms  which  fairest  nature  yields, 
Which  deck  the  hills,  the  plains,  and  fruitful  fields ; 
These  natural  beauties  charm  the  ravished  sight, 
And  wrap  the  enraptured  soul  in  fond  delight. 

The  following  appears  in  Halleck's  handwriting, 
with  his  name  attached,  and  is  dated  January  17,  1805. 
If,  as  I  presume  to  be  the  case,  the  lines  are  his,  the 
subject  may  have  been  suggested  to  him  by  Monsieur 
Enard,  a  French  refugee,  who  was  then  and  for  a  year 
or  more  previous  an  inmate  of  his  father's  household. 
He  was  a  fine  musician,  and  used  to  delight  the  fam 
ily  circle  with  his  exquisite  playing  on  the  violin.  To 
Mr.  Halleck's  house  at  that  period  often  came  Lyman 
Beecher  to  listen  to  Enard,  and  sometimes  to  borrow 
his  fiddle.  On  one  occasion  Dr.  Beecher  called  on  a 
Sunday  evening,  and,  on  throwing  off  his  cloak,  what 
should  appear  but  the  violin,  which  he  had  borrowed 
the  previous  day,  and,  as  he  handed  it  to  its  owner  and 
laid  his  cloak  on  a  chair,  which  he  had  only  worn  for 
the  purpose  of  screening  the  instrument  from  the  lynx- 
eyes  of  the  good  people  of  Guilford,  he  remarked : 
"  You  know,  my  friends,  we  must  respect  the  preju 
dices  of  the  weaker  brethren." 

"  Claude  Sanguin,  a  French  poet,  who  died  at  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  having  had  his  house 
consumed  by  lightning,  sent  the  following  ingenious 
card  to  Louis  the  Fourteenth  on  the  occasion.  The 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  57 

monarch  at  once  felt  the  delicacy  of  the  poet's  verses 
and  the  distress  of  his  situation,  and  cheerfully  ordered 
him  the  one  thousand  crowns,  which  were  the  object 
of  his  demands  : 

'  To  engage  in  your  matters  belongs  not  to  me, 
This,  sire,  inexcusable  freedom  would  be  : 
But  yet,  when  reviewing  my  miseries  past, 
Of  your  majesty's  income  the  total  I  cast, 
All  counted  (I've  still  the  remembrance  quite  clear), 
Your  revenue  's  one  hundred  millions  a  year ; 
Hence  one  hundred  thousand  per  day  in  your  power, 
Divided,  brings  four  thousand  crowns  to  each  hour. 
To  answer  the  calls  of  my  present  distress, 
Which  lightning  has  caused  in  my  country  recess, 
May  I  be  allowed  to  request,  noble  sire, 
Of  your  time,  fifteen  minutes,  before  I  expire.'  " 

The  young  poet,  having  completed  his  studies,  by 
passing  through  the  four  departments  which  then  exist 
ed  in  New-England  schools,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  entered 
the  store  of  his  kinsman,  Andrew  Eliot,  of  Guilford, 
with  whom  he  remained  as  a  clerk  for  six  years,  re 
siding  in  his  family,  in  accordance  with  the  customs 
of  that  day.  Here  he  learned  to  keep  accounts  by 
double  entry,  and  soon  took  the  entire  charge  of  the 
books.  They  were  kept  in  a  correct  and  business-like 
manner,  were  well  written,  for  even  at  that  early  date 
Halleck  wrote  a  neat  and  dainty  hand ;  and  it  is  related 


5  8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

that  the  only  mistake  ever  discovered  in  the  young 
clerk's  book-keeping  at  Andrew  Eliot's  was  in  opening 
duplicate  accounts  in  the  Ledger  with  the  same  per 
son.  A  large  portion  of  the  time  Fitz-Greene  had  sole 
charge  of  the  store,  the  principal  being  absent,  attend 
ing  to  his  farm,  situated  near  Guilford.  He  was  noted  as 
a  clerk  for  celerity,  correctness,  and  courtesy,  the  latter 
a  characteristic  which  he  retained  to  a  marked  degree 
through  life.  In  passing  with  the  poet  through  the 
streets  of  his  native  town  in  August,  1867,  a  friend, 
observing  that  he  touched  his  hat  or  removed  it  en 
tirely,  in  his  gracious  and  graceful  manner,  to  many 
persons,  some  of  whom  gave  but  a  slight  nod  in  return 
to  his  polite  salutation,  remarked,  "  Mr.  Halleck,  your 
courtesy  seems  to  be  thrown  away  on  those  boors." 
"  Yes,  perhaps  'tis  so,"  he  replied,  "but  yet,  that's  no 
reason  why  I  should  be  a  boor."  Sixty  years  earlier, 
an  eye-witness  relates  that  while  returning  with  a 
number  of  young  people  from  a  picnic  at  Nutplains, 
the  party  passed  his  home,  and  Fitz-Greene,  seeing 
his  father  standing  in  the  door,  stood  up,  and,  raising 
his  hat,  made  a  graceful  bow,  Mr.  Halleck  returning 
his  son's  salutation  in  an  equally  courteous  manner. 
It  is  a  pleasing  reminiscence  of  the  same  gentleman,1 
that  at  the  parties  and  picnics  at  which  they  were 
present  together  in  life's  green  spring — a  time  when  it 
was  the  custom  for  young  men  to  drink — the  young 

1  George  A.  Foote,  of  Guilford. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  59 

poet  could  never  be  induced  to  touch  wine  or  spirits 
of  any  kind. 

In  addition  to  his  more  ambitious  attempts  in 
poetry,  Halleck,  during  his  boyhood,  wrote  innumer 
able  acrostics,  rebuses,  and  poetical  epistles,  to  his.  fair 
young  friends,  among  whom  his  handsome  face  and 
figure,  his  sprightly  and  entertaining  conversation,  and 
his  talent  for  rhyming,  had  combined  to  render  him 
a  very  great  favorite.  The  poet-clerk's  communica 
tions  to  the  -young  ladies  were  rarely  made  in  prose, 
but  in  the  manner  of  the  following,  written  when  about 
fifteen,  to  his  inamorata,  or,  at  least,  to  one  of  the 
number,  who  still  resides  at  Guilford,  and  recalls  most 
vividly  the  gentle  and  poetic  companion  of  her  youth. 
It  is  addressed  to  "  Dear  Sarah,"  dated  April  I7th,  and 
signed,  "Yours,  F.  G.  H."  : 

"  I  beg  leave  to  ask  you  in  what  I've  offended  ? 

To  merit  neglect  and  that  glance  of  your  eye  ; 
For  certain  it  is,  I  have  never  intended 

The  smallest  affront  that  could  cause  you  to  sigh, 

"  Though  I  know  not  my  crime,  yet  I  pray  you  have  pity, 

And  accept  my  sincere  and  heart-rending  contrition ; 
For  is  not  this  letter  a  most  doleful  ditty  ? 

Yet  more  doleful  still  is  the  author's  condition  !  " 

Another  of  his  juvenile  notes,  addressed  to  the 
same  "  Dear  Sarah,"  who,  a  few  years  later,  became 
the  reigning  belle  of  Guilford,  runs  as  follows  : 


60  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"If  it's  pleasant  to-night, 
And  the  stars  should  shine  bright, 

Will  you  take  a  short  sleigh-ride  with  me  ? 
Now,  do  not  say  "  No," 
For  if  you  don't  go, 

You  can't  think  how  vexed  I  shall  be." 

"  The  Tempest,"  which  is  included  in  the  last  edition 
of  Halleck's  Poems,  was,  with  other  pieces,  appended 
to  this  chapter,  written  during  this  period.  The  long 
and  almost  constant  confinement  in  a  country  store 
could  not  prevent  the  young  clerk  from  composing 
many  beautiful  stanzas,  for,  as  has  been  said  of  another 
poet  of  the  old  motherland  : 

"  He  was  one 

Who  could  not  help  it,  for  it  was  his  nature 
To  blossom  into  song,  as  'tis  a  tree's 
To  leaf  itself  in  April." 

It  was  during  the  second  year  of  his  clerkship  that 
an  incident  occurred  which  put  an  end  to  his  habit  of 
reading  in  bed  until  midnight,  and  in  some  instances, 
when  deeply  interested  in  a  favorite  author,  until  an 
even  later  hour.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  placing  his 
candlestick  on  a  chair  by  the  side  of  his  bed,  and  it 
appears  that  one  night  he  placed  an  additional  candle, 
without  a  holder,  on  the  chair,  and  so  deeply  absorbed 
did  he  become  in  his  book,  that  he  failed  to  observe 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  £l 

that  it  had  burned  itself  down  to  the  chair,  setting  it 
on  fire  and  communicating  the  flame  to  the  bed-cloth 
ing,  until  the  heat  at  length  aroused  him,  and,  spring 
ing  up,  he  tumbled  it  and  all  the  bedding  out  of  the 
window,  and  so  saved  the  house  from  destruction. 
From  henceforth  Halleck  was  obliged  to  retire  without 
a  light,  as  Mrs.  Elliot  would  no  longer  trust  him  with 
candles  in  his  chamber.  Deprived  of  this  retreat,  and, 
not  wishing  to  be  disturbed  in  his  reading  by  the 
visitors  who  were  frequently  in  the  parlor  and  sitting- 
room,  he  sought  refuge  in  the  kitchen,  the  sanctum  of 
Leah  Norton,  the  housemaid,  who  to  this  day  preserves 
as  a  memento  the  poet's  chair,  with  the  hole  in  it, 
made  by  the  burning  candle.  So,  for  several  winters 
the  favorite  retreat  of  the  poet-clerk  was  the  kitchen, 
and  there,  with  Leah  near  him,  occupied  with  her 
sewing,  or,  perhaps,  a  book,  he  pursued  unmolested 
his  reading,  study,  and  composition.  With  the  excep 
tion  of  a  few  verses  written  under  his  father's  roof,  and 
several  composed  during  moonlight  or  Sunday  rambles 
in  the  vicinity  of  Guilford,  all  the  juvenile  poems  which 
follow  in  this  chapter  were  produced  in  Leah  Norton's 
sanctum.  Leah  was  the  first  person  who  saw  the 
young  poet's  writings,  which  were  usually  read  to  her 
as  soon  as  completed. 

In  the  spring  of  1808  Halleck  visited  New  York, 
then  a  city  of  less  than  ninety  thousand  inhabitants. 
He  went  on  business  for  Mr.  Elliot,  and,  during  his 


62  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

few  days'  sojourn,  he  visited  the  Park  Theatre,  at  that 
time  under  the  management  of  Price  and  Cooper,  the 
actor,  whom  he  saw  in  a  play  called,  I  think,  "  The 
School  of  Reform."  Halleck  afterward  became  ac 
quainted  with  this  distinguished  player,  whose  popu 
larity  waned  on  the  arrival,  two  years  later,  of  the 
celebrated  George  Frederick  Cooke.  It  was  on  the 
occasion  of  this,  his  first  visit  to  a  theatre,  that  the 
poet  saw  young  Oliff,  the  actor,  afterward  introduced 
by  him  in  two  of  the  "  Croakers." 

To  Leah,  the  pretty  housemaid,  who  committed 
the  piece  to  memory,  I  am  indebted  for  the  following 
lines,  supposed  to  be  written  near  the  grave  of  an 
Indian  warrior,  killed  by  an  ambush  while  hunting  on 
the  banks  of  one  of  the  lakes  of  Canada  : 

Tread  light  on  the  turf  which  yon  dark  wood  encloses  ! 

Where,  o'er  the  blue  waters,  the  wild  willows  wave ; 
For  there,  pale  and  breathless,  a  warrior  reposes, 

The  pride  of  his  nation  !  the  dread  of  the  brave  ! 
Ye  spirits,  who  high  on  the  red  clouds  are  lying, 
When  the  battle  roars  loud  and  the  death-shafts  are  flying, 
Say,  where  was  your  power  when  the  chieftain  was  dying, 

When,  bleeding  and  cold,  he  was  laid  in  his  grave  ? 

At  morn  from  the  mountain  the  hunter  descending, 
Trod  alone  the  wood-path  in  pursuit  of  the  deer, 

Unconscious  that  woe  o'er  his  head  was  impending, 
He  thought  not  of  danger,  nor  harbored  a  fear. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  63 

Afar  through  the  low-winding  vale  had  he  bounded, 
Ere  night's  sable  robe  the  horizon  surrounded, 
When  sudden  a  shout  through  the  forest  resounded, 
And  pealed  like  the  loud  note  of  war  on  his  ear  ! 

He  listened — it  ceased — and  he  stood  boldly  daring, 

When  again  rang  the  wood  with  the  same  deadly  yell ; 
The  warrior  his  bow  for  defence  was  preparing, 

As  an  arrow  unseen  pierced  his  breast,  and  he  fell. 
For,  concealed  in  the  gloom  which  the  night  was  bestowing 
On  the  glade,  where  the  lake's  rolling  waters  were  flowing, 
A  traitor,  revenge  in  whose  bosom  was  glowing, 
Had  directed  an~arrow  too  faithful  and  well ! 

Ah  !  how  sad  was  that  hour  when  his  life-blood  was  starting, 
And  his  pale,  ghastly  visage  was  crimsoned  with  gore  ! 

How  glared  his  dim  eye  when  his  breath  was  departing, 
And  a  deep  groan  declared  that  the  last  pang  was  o'er  ! 

Around  him  the  dank  dews  of  midnight  were  falling ; 

The  grim,  prowling  wolves  their  companions  were  calling, 

And  their  loud,  moaning  outcry,  so  wild  and  appalling, 
Was  the  death-song  which  told  that  the  chief  was  no  more. 

Ah  !  long  shall  his  friends  of  the  forest  be  mourning, 

And  many  a  tear  for  the  warrior  shall  flow ; 
For  never  again  shall  they  see  him  returning 

From  the  chase  of  the  deer  or  the  death  of  the  foe. 
Dark  and  deep  is  the  grave  where  his  bones  are  decaying, 
And  oft,  when  its  grass  on  the  night-breeze  was  playing, 
A  sound  of  dread  import,  the  wanderer  dismaying, 

Is  heard  on  the  spot  where  the  valiant  lies  low. 


54  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

«» 

This  piece  appeared  anonymously  in  a  New-Haven 
paper  during  the  winter  of  iSop-'io,  and  was  the  first 
poem  published  by  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  a  fact  that  he 
himself  had  apparently  forgotten.  The  poet  wrote  in 
1863  to  a  correspondent,  who  inquired  the  title  of  his 
first  printed  poem :  "I  hasten  to  say  that  I  have  no 
documents  at  my  disposal  enabling  me  to  answer  your 
question.  All  I  can  now  state  is,  that  I  began  early 
and  left  off  early." 

In  the  summer  of  1808,  Halleck  joined  the  militia, 
and  was  soon  made  a  sergeant,  filling  the  position  with 
credit  to  himself  and  to  the  general  satisfaction  of  his 
comrades.  His  experiences  in  the  militia  of  Connec 
ticut,  as  well  as  his  later  campaign  with 

"  Swartwout's  gallant  corps,  the  Iron  Grays," 
was  a  never-failing  subject  of  fun  with  Mr.  Halleck,  both 
in  his  correspondence  and  in  his  conversation.  During 
the  following  winter  he  opened  an  evening  school  for 
instruction  in  writing,  arithmetic,  and  book-keeping, 
and,  by  thus  adding  to  his  limited  income,  was  enabled 
to  indulge  his  passion  for  the  purchase  of  books.  Among 
his  most  prized  possessions  of  this  character  were  the 
Philadelphia  edition  of  Campbell's  poems,  containing 
a  memoir  of  the  poet,  written  by  Washington  Irving,  a 
copy  of  Burns,  and  Addison's  "  Spectator."  Even  at 
that  early  period  his  marvellous  memory  was  displayed 
in  his  poetic  recitations  and  quotations  from  favorite 
authors,  which  he  introduced  in  his  conversation. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  6$ 

One  of  Halleck's  favorites  at  this  time  was  a  young 
girl,  Lydia  Cezanne,  the  daughter  of  a  French  mer 
chant  then  residing  in  Guilford.  Among  the  many 
lines  addressed  to  Lydia  by  her  admirer  were  the  fol 
lowing,  forwarded  to  her  with  a  present  of  some  kind : 

You  think,  perhaps,  that  I've  forgot 

My  promises  forever ; 
But  this  will  prove  that  I  have  not — 

'Tis  "  better  late  than  never." 

The  following,  dated  March,  1809,  is  one  of  several 
poetical  epistles  sent  to  Carlos  Menie,  a  native  of 
Havana,  with  whom  Halleck  was  intimate  during  the 
handsome  young  Cuban's  residence  for  upward  of  a 
year  at  Guilford,  where  he  was  sent  by  his  father,  a 
West-Indian  merchant,  to  learn  our  language  : 

Though  stormy  billows  roll  between, 

And  raging  winds  unite ; 
And  leagues  of  ocean  intervene, 

To  hide  you  from  my  sight : 

Though  days  and  months  have  rolled  away, 

And  many  a  circling  year, 
Since  that  lamented,  mournful  day, 

That  caused  the  parting  tear  : 

Yet  still,  by  fond  remembrance  taught, 
Your  pleasing  form  I  view  ; 


66  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

And  in  my  hours  of  lonely  thought 
I  muse  and  think  of  you. 

Time,  whose  destroying,  wasting  hand 

Bears  all  before  its  sway, 
As  marks  imprinted  on  the  sand 

The  ocean  sweeps  away — l 

Yet  hath  its  circuit  rolled  in  vain 

Your  memory  to  efface ; 
Still  every  feature  I  retain, 

And  every  gesture  trace. 

Oft  in  the  stillness  of  the  night, 

When  slumbers  close  mine  eyes, 
Your  image  bursts  upon  my  sight ; 

I  gaze  in  glad- surprise  ! 

And  oft  when  evening's  mantle  gray 

Is  o'er  the  valleys  spread, 
With  pensive  steps  I  musing  stray 

By  roving  fancy  led. 

Her  wild,  romantic  flights  unfold 

Events  of  former  days  ; 
And  scenes  on  memory's  page  unrolled, 

Her  backward  glance  surveys  : 

When,  by  youth's  cheering  smiles  caressed, 
We  passed  the  social  hours  ; 

1  "  Time,  that  wears  out  the  trace  of  deepest  anguish,  as  the  sea  smooths 
the  prints  made  in  the  sand,  hath  passed  o'er  thee  in  vain."— YOUNG. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  67 

When  calm  enjoyment,  sportive,  dressed 
Life's  opening  path  with  flowers. 

And  say,  my  friend,  does  memory  bring 

These  pleasures  to  your  heart  ? 
Can  thoughts,  which  from  remembrance  spring, 

A  rapturous  charm  impart  ? 

Ah,  yes  !  that  gentle  heart  I  know, 

At  friendship's  touch  it  beats  ; 
I  feel  the  sympathetic  glow, 

My  breast  the  throb  repeats. 

Then  let  us  cherish  well  the  flame 

Of  friendship  and  of  love  ; 
Let  peaceful  virtue  be  our  aim, 

Our  hopes  be  placed  above. 

There,  in  affliction,  may  we  find 

A  refuge  ever  nigh  ; 
May  time  our  friendly  union  bind, 

And  years  cement  the  tie. 

Wherever  on  life's  varied  stage — 

A  devious  maze — you  go, 
Whether  where  winter's  tempests  rage 

Or  summer's  breezes  blow  : 

Yet  in  your  hours  of  solitude, 

When  the  calm  mind  is  free, 
Let  the  remembrance  oft  intrude 

Of  friendship  and  of  me. 


68  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Secure  along  Life's  winding  stream, 

Calm  may  your  moments  glide ; 

And  may  the  Almighty  Power  supreme 

Your  wavering  footsteps  guide. 

May  He  preserve  you  free  from  woe, 
Through  time's  few  fleeting  years  ; 

And  never-ending  bliss  bestow 
Beyond  the  vale  of  tears  ! 

Carlos,  adieu  !  within  my  heart 

Your  memory  firm  shall  dwell ; 
Till,  pierced  by  death's  unerring  dart, 

I  bid  the  world  farewell ! 

A  young  lady  had  borrowed  a  pocket-handkerchief 
of  a  female  friend,  and,  having  kept  it  a  long  time, 
through  negligence,  at  length  returned  it  with  the  fol 
lowing  billet,  enclosing  a  white  violet : 

"  Miss  ELIZA  BURR  :  Do  pardon  my  remissness 
with  regard  to  your  handkerchief,  and  accept  the  little 
blossom  enclosed  as  a  peace-offering  for  my  crime — or, 
I  may  rather  say,  neglect. 

"  ELIZA  CAPLAND. 

"  RICHMOND,  VIRGINIA." 

Miss  Burr,  to  whom  the  billet  was  addressed,  sent 
a  copy  of  it  to  an  acquaintance  in  Guilford,  requesting 
a  poetical  answer,  by  whose  desire  the  young  poet 
wrote  the  following  lines  : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  fig 

And  does  Eliza,  then,  suspect 
That  her  "  remissness  and  neglect  " 

Displease  me,  or  offend  ? 
And  does  she  think  that  I  require 
Her  plea  for  pardon  ?  or  desire 

The  homage  of  my  friend  ? 

While  in  your  gentle  heart,  I  know, 
Exists  fair  virtue's  fervid  glow, 

Its  guilt  I  cannot  see ; 
Nor  do  I  wish  you  to  atone 
For  injuries  I've  never  known, 

By  offerings  paid  to  me. 

Yet,  pleased,  your  little  gift  I  take  : 
I'll  prize  it  for  the  donor's  sake, 

A  sacred  pledge  of  peace  ! 
And  may  its  recollection  prove 
A  cement  of  our  mutual  love, 

And  bid  it  never  cease. 

The  "  little  blossom  "  seems  designed 
To  indicate  the  ties  that  bind 

Your  faithful  heart  to  mine ; 
Its  color,  fair  as  mountain-snows, 
Denotes  the  purity  that  glows 

In  friendship's  flame  divine. 

Yet  ah  !  how  transient  is  the  flower ! 
Short-lived,  and  with'ring  in  an  hour, 
Its  beauties  pass  away. 


•JQ  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

But  soft  affection  in  my  breast 
•Through  every  scene  of  life  shall  rest, 
And  never  can  decay. 

Yet  though  the  flow'ret's  vernal  bloom 
Too  soon  must  meet  its  hapless  doom, 

It  blossoms  not  in  vain  : 
Long  shall  it  pleasing  thoughts  impart, 
And  long,  imprinted  on  my  heart, 

Its  memory  shall  remain. 

And  when,  through  time's  succeeding  years, 
The  annual  bloom  of  spring  appears, 

I'll  call  this  hour  to  view ; 
And  ivhen,  within  the  flow'ry  vale, 
I  see  the  modest  violet  pale, 

'Twill  bid  me  think  of  you. 

The  poet  soon  after  addressed  the  following  lines 
to  a  young  lady,  in  return  for  the  present  of  a  ring, 
formed  of  her  own  hair : 

Need  I  tell  how  beat  my  heart, 

When  my  hand  your  ring  received  ? 

N,eed  I  tell  how  keen  the  dart, 

Pierced  by  which  my  bosom  heaved  ? 

When  the  unexpected  prize 

Round  my  finger  you  entwined, 
Marked  you  not  my  raptured  eyes  ? 

They  bespoke  the  raptured  mind. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  71 

Let  the  proud  and  powerful  boast 

Rings  that  bright  with  splendor  shine, 

Rich  in  gems  from  India's  coast 
Or  Peru  via' s  sparkling  mine. 

Ah  !  a  brighter  splendor  dwells 

In  this  lock  of  Laura's  hair, 
And  its  worth  by  far  excels 

All  the  gold  that  glitters  there. 

Language  cannot  paint  the  pleasure, 

Filled  with  which  your  gift  I  take  ; 
Long  I'll  prize  the  little  treasure, 

Long  I'll  keep  it  for  your  sake. 

Readers  will,  I  think,  fail  to  find  in  the  following 
verses  any  indications  of  early  maturity  of  poetic 
genius  on  the  part  of  the  young  poet,  notwithstanding 
the  testimony  of  one  of  the  most  illustrious  lawyers  of 
the  land,  who  said  to  the  writer,  that  the  perusal  of 
the  lines  to  Memory,  published  with  a  magazine  article 
a  few  months  after  Halleck's  death,  "brought  the 
tears  to  my  eyes ;  "  also  adding,  "  I  have  not  in  many  a 
day  met  with  more  tender  and  touching  lines."  Hal- 
leek  was  not,  certainly,  as  regards  precocity,  the  peer 
of  Coleridge,  whose  "  Ancient  Mariner  "  was  printed 
at  seventeen  ;  of  Cowley,  whose  first  volume  appeared 
when  he  was  a  boy  of  thirteen ;  of  Byron,  a  part  of 
whose  "Childe  Harold"  was  published  at  twenty-four; 


72  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

or  of  poor  Keats,  who  died  at  the  same  age.  Camp 
bell's  "  Pleasures  of  Hope  "  came  out  at  twenty-one  ; 
Akenside's  "  Pleasures  of  the  Imagination"  at  twenty- 
three,  and  Wordsworth's  first  volume  of  poetry  ap 
peared  at  the  same  early  age.  To  take  examples  from 
among  American  poets,  he  cannot  for  a  moment  be 
compared  with  Drake,  who  wrote  the  "  Culprit  Fay  " 
at  twenty ;  with  Bryant,  who,  at  seventeen,  gave  to  the 
world  a  poem  which  he  has  not  since  surpassed;  to 
Brainard  and  Dana ;  to  Pierpont,  Percival,  and  Poe ; 
to  Sands  and  Sprague ;  or  to  many  of  our  younger 
poets  of  the  present  day.  Halleck  wrote  no  poem  that 
he  deemed  worthy  of  a  place  in  his  earliest  volume, 
until  he  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age. 

In  addition  to  the  juvenile  poems  contained  in  this 
chapter,  Halleck  composed,  while  residing  in  Guilford, 
his  "  Ode  to  Good-Humor,"  "  The  Vision  of  Eliphaz," 
"The  Bluebird,"  "Memory,"  "Religion,"  "The 
Tempest,"  and  "  Lines  written  in  a  blank  leaf  of  Os- 
sian's  Poems."  These  seven  pieces,  having  already 
appeared  in  the  new  edition  of  his  Poems,  are  omitted 
in  this  work.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  subjects  of 
several  of  the  following  stanzas,  written  during  a  series  of 
years  preceding  the  date  of  his  departure  from  Guilford, 
are  taken  from  the  Bible,  of  which,  from  his  earliest  boy 
hood  to  the  closing  year  of  his  life,  he  was  a  constant 
reader.  He  had  read  it  through  several  times  before 
he  attained  to  manhood.  During  his  residence  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  73 

nearly  forty  years  in  New  York,  a  day  seldom  passed 
that  he  did  not  peruse  several  chapters ;  and  five  times 
after  his  retirement  to  Guilford,  his  sister  informs  me, 
he  read  the  Scriptures  from  beginning  to  end. 

I  SAMUEL  xviii.  6,  7,  PARAPHRASED. 

As  David  from  the  war  returned, 
With  martial  pomp,  in  proud  array, 

Philistia's  weeping  daughters  mourned, 
In  sorrow  deep  and  wild  dismay. 

Sad  was  their  bitter  plaint  of  woe  ; 

Their  army  fled,  their  champion  slain, 
And  many  a  dear -loved  friend  laid  low, 

Extended  on  the  fatal  plain. 

Far  different  strains,  from  transport  flowing, 

Did  Israel's  fairer  daughters  sing ; 
In  joyful  notes  loud  praise  bestowing 

Upon  their  valiant  warrior-king. 

Their  white  robes  waving  to  the  gale, 
In  measured  graceful  steps  they  move  ; 

And,  pleased,  their  victor  brothers  hail 
With  shouts  of  gratitude  and  love. 

The  tuneful  harp  and  psaltery, 

In  soft  harmonious  strains  resound ; 

While  to  the  pleasing  melody 

Th'  exultant  maidens  danced  around. 
4 


74  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Loud  with  the  king's  victorious  name 
The  arched  heavens  echoing  rang ; 

And  louder  to  young  David's  fame 
The  sister  band  responsive  sang  : 

"  Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands  !  " 
Triumphantly  they  cried ; 

"  And  David  his  ten  thousands  !  " 
The  echoing  choir  replied. 


LINES 

OCCASIONED   BY  THE  PERUSAL  OF  A  LATE  PUBLICATION, 
ENTITLED    "  THE   STAR  IN  THE   EAST." 

Hail !  tidings  of  joy  and  of  rapture,  all  hail ! 

On  the  Eastern  gales  wafted  from  far, 
The  powers  of  the  Gospel  in  India  prevail, 

And  the  East  is  illumed  by  its  Star  ! 

This  surely  will  pleasing  enotions  impart 

To  every  benevolent  mind ; 
And  gladness  and  transport  convey  to  the  heart 

Of  each  sincere  friend  of  mankind. 

Where  the  waters  of  Ganges  meandering  roll, 

The  sound  of  the  Gospel  is  heard ; 
And  the  beams  of  that  light  which  illumines  the  soul 

On  Indostan's  green  vales  have  appeared. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  7 

What  joyful  events  do  these  tidings  presage  ! 

The  banner  of  truth  is  unfurled, 
Which,  erected  on  high,  shall  enlighten  the  age, 

And,  broad-streaming, encircle  the  world  ! 

The  shades  which  envelop  the  horizon,  fly, 

And  futurity's  visions  unfold ; 
How  sacred  the  rapture  that  gleams  in  the  eye 

Which  these  omens  of  bliss  can  behold  ! 

For  the  day  is  approaching — the  hour  is  at  hand, 

When  joy  from  on  high  shall  descend ; 
When  the  blessings  of  Heaven  o'er  earth  shall  expand, 

And  Peace  her  green  branches  extend. 

The  wild  plaint  of  woe  and  the  loud  shrieks  of  pain 

Shall  no  longer  pollute  the  mild  air ; 
And  the  glad  sound  of  slavery  bursting  its  chain 

Shall  succeed  to  the  groans  of  despair. 

The  dread  sword  of  war  shall  be  brandished  no  more, 
The  shrill  sound  of  its  trumpet  shall  cease ; 

And  the  plains  which  so  late  heard  the  loud  battle's  roar 
Shall  resound  to  the  echo  of  peace  ! 

The  hour  is  approaching,  when  bliss  shall  resume 

Her  empire  and  seat  here  below ; 
Again  shall  the  flow'rets  of  Paradise  bloom, 

Again  Eden's  waters  shall  flow, 


76  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Inspired  with  the  theme,  with  the  prospect  elate, 
We  behold  the  glad  day-star  appear; 

While  hope,  as  our  bosoms  impatiently  wait, 
Proclaims  that  the  bright  orb  is  near. 

Already  its  beams  o'er  the  mountains  arise, 

Already  the  East  feels  its  ray ; 
Ah !  soon  shall  its  radiance  brighten  the  skies, 

And  blaze  in  the  splendor  of  day. 

Then  hail !  ye  glad  tidings  of  rapture,  all  hail ! 

On  the  Eastern  gales  wafted  from  far ; 
The  powers  of  the  Gospel  in  India  prevail, 

And  the  East  is  illumined  by  its  Star. 


THE  LAMENTATION   OF  DAVID   OVER   SAUL 
AND  JONATHAN. 

(Paraphrased  from  2  Sam.  i.  1-19,  etc.) 

How  are  the  mighty  fallen  low  ! 
Oh,  bid  the  tear  of  anguish  flow, 

And  heave  the  mournful  sigh ; 
Awake  the  sad,  the  plaintive  strain, 
For  hapless  Israel's  chieftains  slain, 
Breathless,  on  Gilboa's  fatal  plain, 

Her  bravest  warriors  lie  ! 

Oh,  cease  the  wild  complaining  wail, 
Oh,  cease  the  bitter  cry  ! 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Tell  not,  aloud,  the  dreadful  tale, 
Lest,  wafted  on  the  eastern  gale, 

To  Gath  the  tidings  fly. 
Lest,  through  the  streets  of  Askelon, 
The  tale,  too  sadly  true,  should  run, 
How  Israel's  army  was  undone 

On  Gilboa's  mount  afar ; 
And  that,  amid  the  battle's  din, 
Philistia  did  the  victory  win, 

The  laurels  of  the  war. 
Then  shall  her  boasting  maidens,  proud, 

The  song  of  rapture  raise  ; 
And  shouts  of  triumph,  long  and  loud, 

Shall  ring  the  conqueror's  praise. 

Ye  Gilboan  mountains  !  on  your  head 

No  more  the  gentle  dews  of  heaven 
Their  soft,  refreshing  balm  shall  shed, 

And  drops  of  rain  no  more  be  given. 
Never  again  your  crimsoned  road 
By  human  footsteps  shall  be  trod, 
No  more  the  pious  pilgrim  there 
With  holy  offerings  shall  repair 
To  pour  the  penitential  prayer 

Or  sacrifice  to  God. 
For  there,  on  that  lamented  day, 
The  valiant  bands  of  Israel  lay ; 
Stretched  o'er  the  valley,  far  and  wide, 
Along  the  running  streamlet's  side, 

They  formed  the  lengthened  line  ; 


77 


78  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

High  wave  their  plumes  in  martial  pride, 
And  glistening  in  the  silver  tide 

Their  burnished  helmets  shine. 
Inspired  by  valor's  daring  power, 
Dauntless  they  hailed  the  battle's  hour ; 

But  when  the  war-shout  arose, 
Struck  pale  with  terror,  filled  with  dread, 
Across  the  plain  they  wildly  fled, 

And  fell  before  their  foes. 

And  on  thy  fatal  field, 
Cold  on  the  blood-stained  valley's  bed, 
Numbered  among  the  silent  dead, 
The  mighty  Saul  is  lowly  laid, 

Extended  on  his  shield. 
Death's  conquering  arm  has  forced  to  yield 

A  chief  of  high  renown ; 
The  hand  that  once  a  sceptre  held, 

The  head  that  wore  a  crown. 

High  on  the  roll  of  martial  fame 
Stood  Jonathan's  illustrious  name  ; 
Nor  less  the  father  than  the  son 
In  feats  of  gallant  prowess  shone. 
Terror  their  dread  attendant  rode 
Through  seas  of  gore  and  fields  of  blood ; 
Their  fame  to  distant  nations  flew, 
And  conquered  foes  their  valor  knew ; 
When  raised  on  high  the  sword  of  Saul, 
Breathless,  contending  champions  fall 
Before  the  deadly  blow. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

He  never  from  the  war  returned, 

But  orphans  dropped  the  tear  of  woe, 

And  helpless  widows  mourned. 

And  when,  contending  with  the  foe, 
Where  carnage  strewed  the  plain, 

The  youthful  warrior's  dreaded  bow 
Was  never  drawn  in  vain. 

By  natural  bonds  of  kindred  joined, 
Affection's  dearer  ties  combined 

The  father  and  the  son  ; 
Their  souls  in  mutual  union  meet, 
Their  hearts  to  love  congenial  beat, 

Their  hearts,  their  souls  were  one. 
And,  as  connected  in  their  life, 
So  in  the  war's  disastrous  strife, 

Unitedly  they  fought ; 
And  arm  to  arm,  and  side  to  side, 
Long  did  they  stem  the  battle's  tide, 

And  warlike  wonders  wrought. 
And  where  the  son  resigned  his  breath, 
There,  slumbering  in  the  arms  of  death, 

The  mighty  father  lies  ; 
Entwined  by  valor's  crimson  wreath, 
Extended  on  the  fatal  heath, 

They  closed  their  dying  eyes. 
Interred  within  one  common  grave, 
One  cypress  o'er  their  tomb  shall  wave — 
Peace  to  the  memory  of  the  brave  ! 

Their  memory  never  dies  ! 


go  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Loud  did  the  warriors'  names  resound, 
For  strength  and  swiftness  far  renowned  ! 
Swift  as  the  mounting  eagle's  flight, 
When,  far  above  the  empyrean  height, 
Beyond  the  bounds  of  mortal  sight, 

She  cuts  the  liquid  skies ; 
And  stronger  than  the  lion's  rage, 
When  fierce  the  bloody  war  to  wage, 

Across  the  plain  he  flies. 

Daughters  of  Israel !  weep, 

And  pour  the  bitter  tear  ! 
For  in  a  mansion  dark  and  deep 
Your  gallant  friends  and  heroes  sleep, 

To  pleasing  memory  dear. 
Oh  weep,  lament,  and  mourn, 
They  never  can  return  ; 
Then  raise  pale  sorrow's  plaint  sincere 

Around  their  lowly  urn. 
For  gratitude  and  love  are  due 

To  him  whose  generous  hand  bestowed 
The  costly  robes  of  scarlet  hue, 

That  graceful  o'er  your  shoulders  flowed. 
Who  gave  you  ornaments  so  fair, 

That  sparkled,  beauteous  to  behold  ! 
And  bound  with  wreaths  your  flowing  hair 

Of  glittering  gems  and  radiant  gold. 

How  are  the  mighty  fallen  low  ! 
Amid  the  battle's  rage, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

When  sword  to  sword,  and  foe  to  foe, 
And  charge  for  charge,  and  blow  for  blow, 

The  mingled  hosts  engage. 
There  Jonathan,  amid  the  flight, 
Shone  in  his  glittering  armor  bright ; 
Impelled  by  glory's  dazzling  fire, 
When  hardiest  warriors  did  retire 
Before  the  battle's  dreadful  ire, 

He  still  maintained  his  ground ; 
Till,  in  the  fiercest  of  the  flame, 
Unseen  the  fatal  arrow  came 

That  gave  the  deadly  wound. 

My  fainting  spirit  is  opprest ! 
Corroding  anguish  fills  my  breast. 
And  is  my  loved  companion  gone 
And  left  me  friendless  and  alone  ? 
Alas  !  pale  Death  has  aimed  his  blow, 
And  laid  the  youthful  warrior  low  ; 
But  long  within  my  mind  shall  dwell 
The  memory  of  our  last  farewell ; 
And  long  his  name  shall  be  revered, 
By  former  kindnesses  endeared. 
Yes  !  gallant  youth,  my  spirits  feel 
A  wound  that  time  can  never  heal. 
A  mutual  flame  our  bosoms  fired, 
A  mutual  love  our  breasts  inspired, 
Our  pleasures  and  our  cares  the  same  ; 
We  felt,  sweet  friendship's  hallowed  flame, 
Purer  than  that  which  warms  our  hearts 


32  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

When  pierced  by  the  fatal  darts 

That  flash  from  beauty's  eye. 
Affection  twined  our  souls  around, 
And  virtuous  love  our  union  bound 
With  every  sacred  tie. 

The  warlike  weapons  are  no  more, 
The  din  of  battle  now  is  o'er ; 
No  longer  on  our  peaceful  shore 

Its  dreadful  sound  I  hear. 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  low  ! 
Oh  raise  the  bitter  plaint  of  woe, 
And  bid  the  tear  of  anguish  flow 

Around  the  warrior's  bier. 


NO   ROSE  WITHOUT  A  THORN.' 

The  blooming  Rose  whose  foliage  fair 

With  splendor  decks  the  vale ; 
Whose  sweets  perfume  the  morning  air, 

And  scent  the  evening  gale ; 
Though  rich  and  dazzling  to  our  eyes, 

The  tints  its  leaves  adorn, 
Yet,  ah  !  beneath  its  beauty,  lies, 

Concealed,  a  treacherous  thorn. 

The  moral  muse  a  theme  may  find 

In  this  delusive  flower ; 
It  strongly  pictures  on  the  mind 

Life's  desultory  hour : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Whose  prospects,  opening  to  the  view, 

Seem  fair  as  summer's  morn ; 
Yet  mingled  sorrows  prove  too  true, 

"  No  rose  without  a  thorn !  " 

When,  flushed  with  youth,  we  first  appear, 

Hope  paints,  in  colors  gay, 
Long  hours  of  peace  and  rapture  near, 

Along  the  devious  way ; 
Till,  disappointed  of  our  aim, 

Its  flattering  smiles  we  mourn, 
And,  sighing  at  our  lot,  exclaim, 

"  No  rose  without  a  thorn !  " 

When  Beauty's  smiles  our  hearts  allure, 

And  tune  the  soul  to  joy, 
We  fondly  hope  to  find  secure 

Pure  bliss  without  alloy. 
Yet  when  the  heart,  enchained  by  love, 

With  jealous  fears  is  torn, 
Too  soon  the  hapless  lovers  prove 

"  No  rose  without  a  thorn." 

The  brightest  prospects  lure  our  eyes, 

Of  power,  of  wealth,  and  fame ; 
Eager  we  grasp  the  glittering  prize, 

But  find  an  empty  name. 
And  when  the  gilded  phantom's  known, 

Dejected  and  forlorn, 
The  mournful  truth  our  bosoms  own, 

"  No  rose  without  a  thorn." 


84  -LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Such  is  the  destined  lot  of  all, 

Along  this  vale  below ; 
Now  Pleasure's  sweetest  showers  may  fall, 

And  now  the  storms  of  woe. 
To  scenes  of  sorrow  and  of  pain, 

The  human  race  is  born ; 
Then  cease  expecting  to  obtain 

"  The  rose  without  the  thorn." 

But  let  us  learn  Life's  ills  to  bear, 

To  Heaven's  will  resigned ; 
Its  joys  partake,  its  sorrows  share, 

With  calm  content  of  mind. 
For  he  who  murmurs  at  his  fate, 

Deserves  contempt  and  scorn ; 
He'd  find,  in  Life's  most  envied  state, 

"  No  rose  without  a  thorn." 


SONG. 

How  sweet  at  that  hour,  when  the  moon,  mildly  beaming, 
Illumes  with  pale  lustre  the  murmuring  grove, 

And  each  star  in  the  blue  arch  of  heaven  is  streaming, 
To  wander  alone  with  the  maid  that  I  love  ! 

Let  the  rich  and  the  great  boast  their  pomp  and  their  splendor, 

Their  midnight  carousals  and  gay  revelry ; 
Ah  !  fleeting  and  faint  are  the  pleasures  they  render, 

Compared  with  the  calm  of  the  evening  to  me. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  85 

To  their  wealth,  and  their  pride,  and  their  grandeur  a  stranger, 

Mine  be  the  rapture  this  hour  can  impart ; 
As  slow  o'er  the  woodlands  and  valleys  I  wander 

With  her  who,  alone,  shares  my  joys  and  my  heart. 

While  I  view  the  sweet  smile  on  her  countenance  glowing, 
As  wave  her  dark  locks  to  the  soft  evening  air, 

I  feel  Love's  tender  power  on  my  bosom  bestowing 
A  charm  for  all  grief,  and  a  balm  for  all  care. 


MALVINA'S   DREAM. 

(Paraphrased  from  Ossian's  Crorna,  "  It  was  the  voice  of  my  love,"  etc.) 

Was  it  my  Oscar  struck  my  view, 

Darting  along  the  sun's  bright  beams  ? 

It  was  his  voice — but  ah  !  how  few 
His  visits  to  Malvina's  dreams  ! 

Fathers  of  Toscar  !  from  on  high, 

Ah  !  open  wide  your  airy  halls  ; 
Bend  from  your  clouds  that  gild  the  sky, 

For  'tis  your  loved  Malvina  calls  ! 

The  hour  of  my  departure's  near  j 
A  voice  has  summoned  me  away ; 

The  sound  was  pleasant  in  my  ear, 
Nor  will  my  fluttering  soul  delay. 

Why  did  the  murmuring  blast  arise 
From  the  dark  rolling  of  the  lake  ? 


86  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

It  filled  my  heart  with  sad  surprise, 
And  bade  my  slumbering  eyes  awake. 

Its  rustling  wing  was  in  the  trees 
That  waved  their  branches  o'er  my  head, 

And,  wafted  on  the  distant  breeze, 
Afar  the  pleasing  dream  had  fled. 

But  yet  Malvina  saw  her  love 
Upon  a  shadowy  cloud  reclined ; 

Slow  through  the  air  he  seemed  to  move, 
His  dark  locks  floating  on  the  wind. 

At  times,  dim  gleaming  through  the  cloud 
The  mists  that  veil  his  form  unfold ; 

The  sun-beams  decked  his  airy  shroud, 
It  glittered  like  the  Stranger's  gold. 

Say,  was  it  Oscar  struck  my  view, 
Darting  along  the  sun's  bright  beams  ? 

It  was  his  voice — but  ah  !  how  few 
His  visits  to  Malvina's  dreams  ! 


PARAPHRASE   OF  AN  EXTRACT  FROM  THE 
ITALIAN  BY  MRS.    RADCLIFF. 

"Call  up  the  spirit  of  the  Ocean — bid  him  raise 
the  storm.  The  waves  begin  to  heave,  to  curl,  to 
foam.  The  white  surges  run  far  upon  the  darken 
ing  waters,  and  mighty  sounds  of  strife  are  heard. 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  g/ 

Wrapped  in  the  midnight  of  the  clouds  sits  Terror 
meditating  woe.  Her  doubtful  form  appears  and  fades. 
Like  the  shadow  of  Death,  when  it  mingles  with  the 
gloom  of  the  sepulchre,  and  broods  in  lonely  silence. 
Her  spirits  are  abroad.  They  do  her  bidding.  Hark 
to  the  shrieks!  the  echoes  of  the  shores  have  heard." 


Spirits  of  the  stormy  deep  ! 
In  your  caves  no  longer  sleep  ! 
Bid  the  slumbering  billows  roar, 
And  the  winds  be  still  no  more  ! 

Hark  !  the  dreadful  voice  they  hear, 
It  forebodes  the  tempest  near ; 
Starting  at  the  threat'ning  sound, 
The  dark-blue  waves  roll  wild  around  : 
Loud  on  the  craggy  rocks  they  beat, 
Now  rise,  now  fall,  now  part,  now  meet ; 
The  foaming  surges,  mounting  high, 
Far  on  the  darkening  waters  fly ; 
And  while  the  storm  increases  fast, 
Borne  distant  on  the  howling  blast, 
Dread  sounds,  commingled,  chill  the  waves, 
And  louder  still  grim  Horror  raves. 

Wrapped  in  the  midnight  of  the  cloud,  • 
Concealed  within  "her  sable  shroud, 
Sits  Terror— meditating  woe, 
In  awful  accents,  muttering  low. 


88  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

Now  dim  her  doubtful  form  appears, 
While  shuddering  Nature  starts  and  fears 
Now  fades  along  the  darksome  gloom, 
Like  shadows  o'er  the  dead  man's  tomb, 
When,  mingling  with  the  awe  profound, 
They  watch,  in  silent  state  around. 

Her  spirits,  on  the  midnight  air, 
To  do  her  dread  commands,  prepare ; 
While  Echo,  to  the  farthest  shore, 
Bears,  on  the  gale,  the  thundering  roar. 


"  MATILDA." 

(Imitation  of  "Lochaber  no  more.") 

When  the  dew-drops  of  evening  impearl  in  the  shade, 
And  moonbeams  illume  with  mild  lustre  the  glade, 
Matilda  oft  wanders  alone  through  the  vale, 
And  tells,  in  faint  murmurs,  her  sorrowing  tale. 

False  love  has  deprived  her,  forever,  of  rest, 
And  despair's  dreaded  frenzy  prevails  in  her  breast ; 
Her  peace  is  departed,  her  joys  are  all  o'er, 
And  hope  can  enliven  her  bosom  no  more. 

Her  soul-piercing  accents,  and  eyes  glaring  wild, 
Declare  that  the  maiden  is  Misery's  child ; 
Not  a  gleam  of  enjoyment  her  heart  can  retain, 
It  beats  but  to  anguish,  it  throbs  but  to  pain  ! 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


89 


Though  often  remembrance  calls  her  to  view, 
Her  pleasures,  that  vanished  like  morn's  early  dew ; 
Yet  ah  !  it  but  tells  her  those  pleasures  are  o'er, 
And  that  joy  will  enliven  her  bosom  no  more. 

Compassion,  Matilda,  thy  wounds  cannot  heal, 

Nor  assuage  the  deep  pangs  fate  has  doomed  thee  to  feel ; 

Yet  our  bosoms  will  melt  at  thy  sad  tale  of  woe, 

And  will  bid  the  soft  tear  of  sweet  sympathy  flow. 

And  that  Power  will  preserve  thee,  who,  seated  on  high, 

Regards  the  afflicted  with  merciful  eye ; 

Ah  !  soon  in  the  grave  will  thy  sorrows  be  o'er, 

And  memory  torture  thy  bosom  no  more. 


THE   RAINBOW. 

How  fair  the  rainbow  meets  the  view  ! 
Far  livelier  tints,  of  every  hue, 
Than  e'er  the  artist's  pencil  drew, 

Are  pictured  there ; 
And  form,  around  the  horizon  blue, 

An  arch  in  air. 

Vain  beauties  !  for  how  soon  they  die  ! 
How  swift  they  fade  along  the  sky ; 
Ere  yet  they  strike  the  raptured  eye, 

Their  charms  are  o'er ; 
Fleet  as  the  breeze  that  passes  by, 

And  comes  no  more  ! 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

Such  are  the  flattering  visions  gay, 
That  glitter  round  life's  opening  clay ; 
Brightened  by  fancy's  kindling  ray, 

Awhile  they  burn ! 
But  soon,  too  soon,  they  glide  away, 

And  ne'er  return ! 

So  transient  is  the  fairest  flower 
That,  high  in  beauty's  festive  bower, 
Nurtured  by  Fortune's  favoring  shower, 

Is  seen  to  bloom  ! 
So  short  is  Youth's  enchanting  hour, 

So  sure  its  doom  ! 

But  the  endowments  of  the  mind, 
When  beauty's  powers  are  all  resigned, 
And  youth's  fond  days  are  left  behind, 

Shall  still  remain ; 
And,  with  unfading  wreaths  entwined, 

Their  charms  retain ! 


VERSIFICATION    OF  JOB,    14™   CHAPTER, 

(From  the  beginning  to  the  i2th  verse,  omitting  the  sd  and  4th). 

Vain  and  delusive  are  the  hopes  of  man  ! 
The  short-lived  tenant  of  this  vale  below. 
Few  are  his  days — and  fleeting  his  enjoyments — 
The  child  of  woe — the  meteor  of  an  hour  ! 
Down  the  swift  current  of  descending  time 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  gj 

He  glides,  unconscious  of  its  headlong  force, 
Which  bears  him  from  the  cradle  to  the  tomb. 
Through  every  path,  where  turn  his  wayward  steps, 
A  train  of  sorrows  and  of  ills  attends  him, 
And  clouds  each  opening  pleasure  that  appears 
To  cheer  the  gloom  of  Life's  bewildered  way. 

Like  the  fair  flower,  that  blooms  in  nature's  pride, 
Diffusing  odors  o'er  the  lowly  vale, 
Or  wildly  waving  to  the  mountain  breeze ; 
Though  charms  unnumbered  may  attract  the  eye, 
When,  glistening  with  dew,  its  leaves  unfold, 
And  gayly  brighten  morning's  earliest  dawn, 
Yet,  ere  the  mid-day  sun  illumes  the  skies, 
Ere  one  short  day  has  seen  the  blossom  bloom, 
The  rustling  blast,  unconscious  of  its  beauty, 
Bears  it,  relentless,  from  its  native  stalk, 
And  rudely  scatters  o'er  the  distant  wave 
Its  boasted  sweets.  ...  Or  like  a  summer  cloud, 
Whose  darkening  shadow  glides  before  the  view, 
And  spreads  o'er  earth  a  momentary  gloom, 
Then  flies — is  vanished — and  is  seen  no  more. 
Such  is  the  transient  state  of  earthly  things, 
And  such  the  allotted  destiny  of  man. 

His  bounds  are  set  by  Heav.en's  dread  decree, 

His  days  determined,  and  the  Great  Creator 

Hath  placed  the  barrier  that  obstructs  his  course, 

And  fixed,  unchangeably,  the  fatal  hour 

Which  dooms  him,  breathless,  to  the  grave's  cold  bed. 


92  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Forbear  thy  vengeance — righteous  Power  on  high  ! 
Avert  thy  judgment — stay  thy  chastening  hand  ! 
From  the  devoted  victim — and  bestow 
Peace  and  repose — soft  mercy's  gifts  divine  ! 
On  the  remainder  of  Life's  lingering  years, 
Till  its  appointed  duties  are  accomplished, 
And,  as  an  hireling,  he  performs  his  day. 

The  tree,  which  now,  extended  on  the  plain, 

Lies  scattered  wide,  the  sport  of  every  wind, 

A  victim  to  the  lightning's  fiery  rage  ! 

Fallen  is  the  pride  with  which  it  towered  on  high, 

And  now,  deformed  and  torn,  its  spreading  branches 

Are  slowly  mingling  with  surrounding  dust. 

Yet  'mid  the  desolation  that  prevails, 

Hope  still  remains  to  tell  the  pleasing  tale, 

That,  though  a  vestige  of  its  former  greatness 

The  fond  inquirer  can  no  longer  trace  ; 

That  though  the  place,  which  once  its  burden  knew, 

Knows  it  no  more,  and  every  charm  is  lost 

That  late  endeared  it  to  the  passing  eye ; 

Yet  that,  enlivened  by  the  showers  of  heaven, 

Some  future  hour  shall  see  it  proudly  rise ; 

New  sprouts  will  flourish  from  the  parent  root, 

And,  by  the  fostering  hand  of  time  matured, 

Will  form,  upon  the  now  deserted  spot, 

A  second  tree,  whose  branches,  waving  broad, 

Shall  shield  the  plain,  through  ages  yet  to  come — 

Bend  to  the  summer  breeze,  and  brave  the  storm. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


93 


But  man,  when  low  in  dust,  revives  no  more  : 
In  that  dread  hour,  which  seals  his  eyes  in  night, 
Health's  fairest  bloom  and  Beauty's  loveliest  charms 
Fade  from  the  view ;  and  do  they  e'er  return  ? 
Darkness  hangs  o'er  the  pillow  of  the  dying, 
And  veils  futurity  from  mortal  eyes. 
And  even  Hope,  sweet  soother  of  the  heart ! 
But  faintly  smiles  when  death  approaches  near ; 
For  when  the  breath  of  life  forsakes  the  body, 
Where  is  it  fled  ?  'tis  gone — but  tell  me  where  ? 

As  fail  the  waters  from  the  boundless  deep, 

And  as  the  flood  decays,  and  wastes  away, 

So  man — reposing  in  the  arms  of  death — 

Lies  down,  and  riseth  not,  nor  shall  he  rise 

From  the  dark  slumbers  of  the  iron  tomb, 

Till  the  last  thunders  shake  the  astonished  Heavens, 

And  hurl  the  planets,  flaming,  from  their  heights  ! 

Till  earth  shall  vanish — ocean  cease  to  roll — 

And  startled  Nature  hear  a  voice  proclaiming 

In  awful  accents — "  TIME  SHALL  BE  NO  MORE  !  " 


TRIFLES   "LIGHT  AS  AIR." 

Correspondence  with  a  young  lady  occasioned  by  an  appearance  of 
melancholy  in  her  countenance. — Extract  from  Cumberland's  "  Arundel." 


Tell  me,  Louisa, — tell  me  why 
Thy  bosom  draws  the  heaving  sigh  ? 
Art  thou  deserted  or  betrayed  ? 


94  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

Say,  who  can  wrong  thee,  gentle  maid  ? 
Is  thy  love  absent  or  unkind  ? 
What  anguish  racks  Louisa's  mind  ? 

ANSWER  BY  M.    W.    H. 

II. 

With  eyes  half  open,  you  might  see 
That  it's  not  Love  disquiets  me. 
I'm  not  "  deserted  nor  betrayed" 
No  lovelorn,  sighing,  pining  maid. 
No,  my  whole  heart  is  all  my  own, 
My  spirit  free— my  poiuer  well  known. 
Then  seek  some  other  cause  to  know 
Of  Margaret's  too  obvious  woe  ; 
And  happy,  if  you  chance  to  find 
The  care  that  rankles  in  my  mind, 
Antonio — pity  and  redress, 
And  so  may  Heaven  hereafter  bless  ! 

MARGARET. 

in. 

I've  read  your  answer  o'er  and  o'er, 
At  least  a  dozen  times  or  more ; 
And  racked  and  tortured  my  invention 
To  find  out  its  concealed  intention ; 
But,  after  all,  have  not  divined 
What  secret  anguish  fills  your  mind. 
Is  it  that  conscience  will  upbraid, 
At  times,  thy  conduct,  cruel  maid  ? 
And  in  each  solitary  hour, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  9- 

Bids  thee  lament  thy  boasted  power  ? 

Say,  is  it  that  her  mirror  true 

Will  oft  present  to  fancy's  view 

The  tears  that  have  for  thee  been  shed, 

The  hearts  thou'st  numbered  with  the  dead? 

And  do  these  thoughts  thy  peace  destroy, 

And  cloud  each  opening  beam  of  joy  ? 

If  so,  pray  listen  to  a  friend, 

And  mark  my  words — repent  /  amend ! 

And  rather  than  provoke  such  sighs, 

From  us  poor  mortals,  shut  thine  eyes  ! 

If  this  is  not  the  cause,  I  own 

It  still  remains  to  me  unknown. 

And  I  must  beg  thee  to  disclose, 

In  plainer  language,  all  thy  woes. 

"  Let  not  concealment,  like  the  worm 

Whose  fangs  the  loveliest  flowers  deform, 

Upon  thy  cheek  of  damask  prey, 

Or  pluck  the  bloom  of  health  away."  1 

Yes,  Margaret,  I  can  pity  thee, 

And  drop  the  tear  of  sympathy ; 

And  for  thy  wrongs,  could  I  but  guess  them, 

With  all  my  heart  I  would  redress  them. 

ANTONIO. 

IV. 

Not  yet  the  cause  have  you  defined, 
The  fatal  cause  that  pains  my  mind ; 

1  "  Let  not  concealment,  like  a  worm  in  the  bud,  prey  on  thy  damask 
cheek." — SHAKESPEARE.   . 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

But  since  your  answer  was  so  charming, 

And  your  suspense  becomes  alarming, 

To  my  sad  tale,  oh  give  thine  ear, 

And  all  the  wondroiis  truth  you'll  hear. 

By  lovers  haunted  all  the  while, 

Who  strive  to  win  my  partial  smile, 

Of  the  motley  crew,  which  one  to  choose, 

I  cannot  tell — if  all  refuse, 

Fast,  fast,  my  youthful  years  will  fly, 

And  all  my  roses  fade  and  die  ; 

Too  soon  the  rose,  the  lily,  fades, 

And  lo  !  the  land  of  Cross  Old  Maids 

Opes  on  my  sight.     I  shrink  aghast  ! 

Oh  !  of  all  ills  this  is  the  last. 

From  this  lone  state,  ye  powers,  defend  me  ! 

But  ah  !  take  care  what  lad  you  send  me  ! 

Antonio,  dost  thou  wonder  now 

Why  grief  and  care  cloud  my  young  brow ! 

While  Scylla  and  Charybdis  fright  me, 

And  sports  and  sleigh-rides  ne'er  delight  me. 

MARGARET. 
v. 

At  last  the  mystery  is  out, 
All  now  is  clear  as  day,  no  doubt ; 
And  for  your  kindness  in  disclosing 
This  wondrotis  secret,  and  reposing 
Such  trust  in  me,  I  must  beg  leave 
To  ask  your  ladyship  to  receive, 
Pure  from  a  heart  sincere  and  fervent, 
The  thanks  of  your  most  humble  servant, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

And  to  permit  me  to  propose 

Some  means  to  alleviate  your  woes. 

\ipity  draws  the  streaming  tear, 

And  bids  your  feeling  bosom  fear 

That,  if  from  the  "  motley  crew  "  you  choose 

One  favored  " lad" — the  rest  refuse — 

The  poor,  neglected  souls,  so  sad, 

Will  shoot  themselves,  or  else  go  mad, 

Don't  mind  it — tell  them,  with  a  frown, 

That  all  must  not  expect  a  crown. ; 

That  few  on  earth  a  sceptre  wield, 

And  few  oxe  first  in  glory's  field. 

But  if,  as  shrewdly  I  suspect, 

The  reason  why  you  all  reject, 

Is,  that  among  the  crowds  that  sigh, 

Pierced  by  the  lightning  of  your  eye, 

You  find  not  one  who  claims  the  art 

To  win  tjie  gentle  Margaret's  heart ; 

Not  one  that  virtue  can  approve, 

Or  one  that's  worthy  Margaret's  love — 

'  Tis  all  a  -whim — you're  too  precise  : 

Accept  for  once  a  friend's  advice, 

Nor  be  so  anxious  to  discover 

The  sense  or  nonsense  of  your  lover  ; 

For  of  our  sex  this  truth  I  know, 

Perfection  dwells  not  here  below. 

To  'scape  the  dark  and  dismal  shades 
That  veil  the  land  of  "  Cross  Old  Maids," 
5 


98  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

And  shun  the  numerous  ills  that  wait 

On  that  deserted,  lonely  state, 

The  surest  method  that  I  know, 

And  that,  alas  !  not  always  so, 

Is  this.     But  stay — you  first  must  swear 

You'll  not  reveal  it  anywhere. 

For  I  am  not  about  to  mention 

A  subject  of  no  mean  invention  ; 

'Twas  not  designed  for  all  to  hear, 

Not  meant  for  every  maiderfs  ear ; 

But  if  you'll  say  you  will  not  tell, 

And  vow  to  keep  the  secret  well, 

True  as  the  miser  to  his  coffers, 

You  have  it — take  the  first  that  offers  ! 

ANTONIO. 

*      X 

P.  S.  If  any  one  should  call  to-day, 

And  "pop  the  question,''''  as  they  say, 
Pray,  let  him  linger  till  to-morrow, 
Before  you  soothe  his  heart  of  sorrow ; 
For,  if  unpromised  you'll  remain 
Till  then,  /'//  come  iff  doesn't  rain  ! 

A. 


REBUS. 

A  flower,  the  first  in  Flora's  train, 
Fairest  of  all  that  deck  the  plain  : 
The  muse  who  tunes  the  sacred  lyres  : 
The  words  which  love  sincere  inspires, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

When  low  at  beauty's  shrine  we  bow 
And  true  and  lasting  homage  vow  : 
That  good  supreme  which  all  desire, 
All  strive  to  gain,  yet  few  acquire  : 
That  charm  divine  which  glistens  gay 
In  her  whose  name  these  lines  portray  : 
A  chief,  for  wisdom  famed  of  old, 
Whose  tale  the  Grecian  bard  has  told  : 
A  maiden's  name,  whose  winning  art 
Has  twined  a  "  love-net"  round  my  heart 
What  far  Peru  via' s  mines  enclose  : 
The  hour  devoted  to  repose  : 
And  that  which  dimples  beauty's  cheeks, 
And  gay  good-humor's  sway  bespeaks  : 
These,  when  arranged  in  order  due, 
Disclose  the  name  I  mean,  to  view. 


REBUS,  No.  2. 


What  decks  the  azure  sky  at  even  ? 
Who  dwell  within  the  courts  of  heaven  ? 
What  does  the  miser  toil  to  find  ? 
What  fires  the  warrior's  daring  mind  ? 
What  beats  within  my  breast  so  true, 
*     *     *     whene'er  I  think  of  you  ? 
What  is  that  little  twist  of  gold 
Which  on  your  finger  I  behold  ? 


I0o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS. 

What  was  her  name,  for  I've  forgot, 
Who  dwelt  on  Eden's  happy  spot  ? 
What's  that  amusement,  lately  slighted, 
Which  you  and  me  has  oft  delighted  ? 
What  is  that  power  which  joy  insures, 
And  binds,  I  hope,  my  heart  to  yours  ? 
What  is  that  virtue  pure  which  glows 
In  her  whose  name  these  lines  compose  ? 
Whence  do  love's  fatal  arrows  fly, 
That  bid  the  wounded  bosom  sigh  ? 
What  is  that  passion — can  you  guess, 
Which  I  can  feel,  but  can't  express  ? 
And  what  cold  month  concludes  the  year, 
And  bids  us  hope  that  snow  is  near  ? 
These  questions,  if  you  answer  true, 
Will  give  a  well-known  name  to  view. 


CHAPTER   III. 

1811-1818. 

Leaves  Guilford. — Arrival  in  New  York. — Enters  Jacob  Barker's  Counting- 
room. — First  Letters. — His  Business  Associates. — New  York  in  1811. — 
Visits  Guilford. — Poem  appears  in  Columbian. — The  Iron  Grays. — The 
UglyClub.— Literature  of  iSoo-'is.— Becomes  acquainted  with  DeKay 
and  Drake.— Visits  to  Hunter's  Point  and  Love  Lane.—"  The  Culprit 
Fay."— Goes  to  North  Carolina.— At  Drake's  Wedding.— Washington 
and  Warren  Bank. — Receives  Poetical  Epistles  from  Drake. — Writes 
Songs  for  Miss  McCall. — Poem,  "  Twilight." — Anecdote. 

|N  the  month  of  May,  1811,  when  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck  was  nearly  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he 
departed  from  his  native  village — without  leaving  a 
single  enemy  behind  him — to  seek  after  fame  and  for 
tune  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  latter  he  never 
acquired,  but  the  former  he  most  assuredly  soon  found, 
and  continued  to  share  with  his  comrades,  Cooper  and 
Irving,  with  Bryant  and  Paulding.  For  some  time 
unsuccessful  in  obtaining  a  position,  he  was  on  the  eve 
of  departure  for  Richmond,  Virginia,  when  he  was 
introduced  by  Noah  Talcott,  a  New- York  merchant, 
to  Jacob  Barker,  one  of  the  leading  bankers  and  most 
prominent  business  men  of  that  day,  who,  pleased  with 


I02  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

his  appearance  and  conversation,  gave  him  a  place  in 
his  counting-room  at  84  South  Street.  Halleck,  in  a 
letter  to  his  father,  dated  New  York,  July  22,  1811,  the 
first  that  has  come  into  my  possession,  says  : 

"  In  my  last  I  informed  you  of  my  expectation  of 
going  to  Richmond,  and,  as  I  fear  that  that  plan,  for 
various  reasons,  did  not  meet  your  approval,  I  am 
pleased  now  to  remove  your  apprehensions,  by  inform 
ing  you  that  Jacob  Barker  has  offered  me  a  salary, 
and  that  I  have  accepted  his  terms  and  engaged  for 
one  year.  *  *  *  By  the  last  London  papers  I  observe 
that  Richard  Cumberland,  the  celebrated  author,  and 
the  last  of  the  renowned  Literary  Club,  is  no  more. 
He  died  in  London  some  time  in  May — was  buried  in  a 
splendid  and  honorable  manner  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
near  the  remains  of  the  immortal  Garrick,  where  a 
tomb  is  preparing  to  be  erected  to  his  memory.  Light, 
say  I,  lie  his  ashes,  and  hallowed  be  the  turf  that  pil 
lows  his  head.  *  *  *  The  intelligence  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees  occasioned  some  agita 
tion  in  this  city,  but  has  not  yet  led  to  movements  of  a 
decisive  nature.  None  appear  sufficiently  willing  to 
trust  to  the  good  faith  of  Bonaparte,  to  risk  their  prop 
erty  by  sending  it  to  France ;  and  .the  report  to-day, 
respecting  the  repeal,  is  contradicted.  Jacob  Barker 
has  had  a  vessel  lately  sequestered  in  Gallipoli,  a  port 
near  Naples,  Italy,  and  a  few  days  since  he  heard  of 
her  condemnation." 


FITZ- GREENE  HA LLECK. 


I03 


How  this  extract  carries  us  back  to  the  days  when 
De  Witt  Clinton  was  Mayor  of  New  York  and  lived  at 
Richmond  Hill — the  time  of  Robert  Fulton,  when  a 
steamboat  left  every  Tuesday  and  Saturday  for  Albany, 
arriving  there  in  something  less  than  two  days,  and  a 
stage  started  from  the  corner  of  Cortlandt  Street  and 
Broadway  daily,  for  Boston  and  Philadelphia  !  How, 
with  our  mind's  eye,  we  see  the  Liliputian  city  of  less 
than  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  with  its  Bat 
tery,  where  the  old  burghers  and  citizens  of  those  days 
would,  as  Irving  tells  us,  "  repair  of  an  afternoon  to 
smoke  their  pipes  under  the  shade  of  the  branches, 
contemplating  the  golden  sun,  as  he  gradually  sunk  in 
the  west,  an  emblem  of  that  tranquil  end  toward  which 
themselves  were  hastening  :  while  the  young  men  and 
the  damsels  of  the  town  would  take  many  a  moonlight 
stroll  among  these  favorite  haunts,  watching  the  chaste 
Cynthia  tremble  along  the  calm  bosom  of  the  bay,  or 
light  up  the  white  sail  of  some  gliding  bark,  and 
interchanging  the  honest  vows  of  constant  affection." 

In  a  recent  conversation  with  the  poet  in  regard 
to  the  wonderful  changes  in  the  city,  he  remarked  that, 
when  he  first  came  to  New  York,  Nathaniel  Prime 
lived  in  the  historical  Kennedy  House,  occupied  by 
Washington,  and  still  standing,  at  No.  I  Broadway; 
Henry  Cruger,  the  colleague  of  Edmund  Burke  in  the 
English  House  of  Commons,  to  whom  is  incorrectly 
attributed  the  speech,  "I  say  ditto  to  Mr.  Burke,"  in 


I04  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

Greenwich  Street ;  Archibald  Grade,  corner  of  Bridge 
and  State  Streets  ;  John  Jacob  Astor,  at  223  Broadway ; 
Jacob  Barker,  at  34  Beekman  Street ;  Oliver  Wolcott, 
in  Pine  Street ;  and  that  nearly  all  the  aristocracy  of 
the  city  resided  adjacent  to  the  Battery,  that  being 
then,  and  for  many  years  afterward,  the  focus  of 
fashion — that  the  only  survivors  among  the  prominent 
New-Yorkers  of  that  day  whom  he  could  then  (October, 
1867)  recall,  were  his  friends,  Jacob  Barker,  now  of 
New  Orleans,  and  Gulian  C.  Verplanck,  then  a  member 
of  the  Historical  Society  and  a  trustee  of  the  Society 
Library,  located  at  No.  16  Nassau  Street,  and  of  which 
John  Pintard  was  secretary  and  librarian. 

In  the  following  letters,  addressed  to  his  sister,  we 
get  some  account  of  his  fellow-clerks  at  Jacob  Barker's, 
together  with  a  glimpse  of  his  manner  of  life  in  the 
new  city  home : 

[TO  MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Aug.  3,  1811. 

DEAR  MARIA  :  I  embrace  a  short  interval  of  leisure 
to  give  you  a  description  of  the  clerks  in  Jacob  Barker's 
counting-house,  as,  perhaps,  the  names  and  characters 
of  my  companions  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  you. 
The  formation  of  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the 
world  did  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  my  early  years,  and  the 
novelty  attendant  on  the  acquisition  of  new  friends — 
friends  in  a  certain  sense  of  the  word,  I  mean — opens  a 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  Ic>5 

source  of  pleasure  hitherto  unknown.  True,  it  is  not  a 
real  pleasure,  but  'tis  gratifying  to  trace  the  endless 
variety  of  man,  to  mark  the  different  propositions,  pas 
sions,  and  pursuits,  as  well  as  situations,  of  our  fellow- 
creatures  ;  and  it  will  not,  perhaps,  be  unproductive  of 
benefit  to  learn  that  a  proportionate  degree  of  happi 
ness  is  allotted  to  all,  that  those  states  in  life  to  which 
we  naturally  attach  felicity  are  not  without  their  cares 
and  anxieties,  and  that  although  our  path  may  not 
appear  so  thickly  strewed  with  roses,  yet  it  is  far  less 
choked  with  thorns.  These  reflections  we  have  often 
been  taught  to  make  from  books,  but  it  is  not  till  in  the 
school  of  experience  we  have  been  taught  the  lesson 
that  we  acknowledge  their  truth.  Some  of  our  clerks 
and  others  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  are,  as  Burr 
says,  "  of  the  best  blood  in  the  country,"  and  belong  to 
the  first  circles ;  yet,  when  they  once  become  known, 
the  difference  between  their  real  character  and  that  of 
the  plebeian  order  is  scarcely  perceivable.  But  a  truce 
with  moralizing.  You  can  make  what  use  of  the  above 
remarks  you  please,  or  pass  them  over  unregarded. 
The  names  of  our  clerks,  to  place  them  according 

to   rank,    are  as  follows :    James    B r,    James    N. 

G d,  Thomas  B r,  Samuel  W s,  and  Alfred 

S n.     J.  B r  was  born,  I  believe,  in  Nantucket. 

He  has  no   father  living,  and  at  fourteen  or  sixteen 
years  Mr.  Barker  took  him  for  his  adopted  son.     He 
gave  him  a  good  English  education  here,  sent  him  to 
5* 


I06  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

France,  where  he  remained  two  years,  and  has  since 
kept  him  in  his  counting-house.  Till  within  the  past 
year  he  has  treated  him  as  his  son,  and  furnished  him 
with  money,  or,  indeed,  any  thing  he  wanted ;  but  for 
about  that  time  he  has  restricted  him  to  a  salary  of  five 
hundred  dollars  per  annum,  and,  as  he  has  been  un 
used  to  living  on  such  a  scanty  annuity,  he  has  involved 
himself  in  debt  to  a  large  amount,  with  no  means  of 
payment  except  Jacob's  generosity,  who,  though  he 
evidently  loves  him  with  a  father's  fondness,  yet,  in 
pursuance  of  his  attempt  to  teach  him  economy,  refuses 
to  pay  any  of  his  debts.  James  is  a  fine  young  fellow, 
very  pretty-looking — I  say  pretty,  for  he  has  quite  a 
boyish  appearance — has  a  peculiar  talent  for  attracting 
the  good  graces  of  the  females  of  his  acquaintance,  and 
is,  properly  speaking,  a  "  ladies'  man."  He  stutters  a 
little,  and  is  very  agreeable,  of  an  excellent  disposition, 
open,  frank,  and  generous  to  a  fault ;  but,  alas,  he  has 
one  crime,  which  no  repentance  can  atone  for — "  he  is 
poor."  On  my  first  entrance  into  the  office,  he  ap 
peared  very  anxious  to  form  an  intimacy  with  me  ;  his 
condescending  and  amiable  manners  soon  endeared 
him  to  me,  and  we  vowed  eternal  friendship  when  we 
had  hardly  seen  each  other  an  hour.  By  the  way,  he 
was  desperately  in  love  with  a  young  lady  at  a  village 
called  Coldsprings,  on  Long  Island,  and,  making  a  con 
fidante  of  me,  delighted  to  dwell  on  the  subject  of  his 
Rebecca,  and  told  me  a  number  of  pretty  little  things 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  Io; 

about  her,  which,  though,  most  undoubtedly,  of  the 
first  importance  to  him,  to  me  appeared  rather  non 
sensical.  To  conclude,  about  two  weeks  ago  he 
came  one  morning  into  the  room  where  I  was  writing ; 
went  out  in  a  few  minutes,  hired  a  horse  and  carriage  to 
go  into  the  country,  and  has  not  since  been  heard  of. 
Immediately  after  his  departure,  a  number  of  bills 
against  him  were  brought  in,  one  in  particular  for 
shoes,  from  June  loth  to  July  3d,  $29.50.  From  that 
you  can  judge  of  the  rest.  How  soon  he  will  return  is 
uncertain. 

James  N.'  G d  is  about  twenty  years  old,  very 

steady  and  attentive  to  his  business,  good-humored,  and 
always  the  same.  He  is,  without  doubt  (to  say  nothing 
of  myself)  the  best  clerk  in  the  office.  He  lives  some 
where  in  Greenwich  Street.  His  father  is  rich,  but 
what  is  his  business,  or  whether  he  does  any,  I  cannot 

say.  G d  has  been  through  Columbia  College,  and 

has  been  with  Mr.  Barker  almost  a  year.  He  has  now 
gone  into  the  country ;  will  stay  two  or  three  weeks. 

Tommy  B r  (as  Jacob  calls  him)  is  from  Nan- 
tucket.  He  is,  perhaps,  nineteen;  understands  doing 
business  very  well,  but  is  of  so  haughty,  overbearing 
disposition  when  he  has  the  power,  that  he  is  not  very 
well  liked.  To  me  he,  however,  is  very  concilia 
ting,  and  I  think  him  possessed  of  good  sense  and 
good  abilities. 

Samuel  W s  is  the  son  of  a  cartman,  though  his 


I0g  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

father  is  possessed  of  considerable  property  in  Oliver 
Street.  He  is  a  handsome  young  man,  and  good- 
natured,  which  are  all  the  good  qualities  he  has. 
Nature,  in  forming  him,  made  a  blunder,  for  he  is  not 
quite  so  deep  as  the  Red  Sea,  and  rather  empty  in  the 
garret.  He  has  been  here  two  years,  and  cannot  make 
a  simple  entry.  He  pretends  to  be  a  good  singer,  and 
is  one  of  the  worst  I  ever  heard.  He  forms,  however, 
a  good  one  for  the  rest  to  crack  their  jokes  upon,  and 
is  the  jest  for  the  whole;  in  short,  he  is  the  exact 
counterpart  of  John  Collins — enough. 

Alfred  S n  is  the  son  of  James  S* n,  of  the 

firm  of  Hoffman,  S n  &  Co.,  and  one  of  the  first 

merchants  in  the  city.  Alfred  has  been  in  Columbia 
College,  has  been  to  Portugal  and  most  parts  of  the 
United  States.  He  is  possessed  of  very  good  parts, 
but  very  lazy,  and  apt  to  leave  the  house  as  soon  as  he 
can.  Bred  in  a  high  style,  and  always  indulged,  the 
idea  of  subordination  to  which  Jacob  Barker  compels 
him  wounds  his  feelings,  and  the  disgrace  of  having  to 
sweep  out  shop  and  make  fires  is  too  much  for  his 
patrician  dignity.  He  lisps  a  good  deal,  and  talks 

like  Henry  R r,  except  his  voice  is  more  manly. 

He  has  good  talents,  and,  I  trust,  will  make  a  good 
merchant. 

So  much  for  the  characters  and  description  of  Jacob 
Barker's  young  men.  As  for  their  stations,  James 
B r  formerly  kept  the  ledger,  Sam.  W s  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  iOg 

journal,  James  N.  G d  the  bank  accounts,  Thomas 

B r  the  custom-house  books,  F.  G.  H.  the  cash- 
book,  and  Alfred  S n  copied  letters,  etc.,  etc. 

While  S.  W s  was  gone  I  kept  the  journal,  and 

Jacob  told  me  yesterday  to  take  the  ledger  if  J.  B r 

did  not  return  this  week. 

Jacob  has  a  house  in  Beekman  Street,  very  elegant. 
He  has  lately  lived  at  Hamilton  Square,  at  a  seat  about 
four  miles  from  the  city.  He  has  now  gone  to  Rock- 
away,  on  the  south  side  of  Long  Island,  a  place  famous 
for  fashionable  resort,  with  his  wife  and  brothers.  His 
wife  is  a  good-looking  woman,  and  dresses  in  the  com 
plete  Quaker  style,  very  neat  and  plain.  She  was  from 
Nantucket.  Her  father  was  rich,  and  it  was  by  his 
means  that  Jacob  got  established  in  business,  being  of 
a  poor  family  himself.  Mr.  Hazard,  his  wife's  father, 
and  his  uncle,  placed  him  with  Isaac  Hicks,  a  respect 
able  merchant  of  this  city,  of  whom  he  learned  his 
talent  for  making  bargains,  aided  by  the  gifts  which 
Nature  had  bountifully  bestowed  upon  him.  He  dresses 
like  and  professes  to  be  a  Quaker,  dates  his  letters  8th 
mo.,  instead  of  August,  calls  the  days  of  the  week 
ist,  2d,  and  3d,  instead  of  Sunday,  Monday,  Tuesday, 
and  uses  thee  and  thou,  etc.  *  * 

He  seldom  comes  into  the  office  before  ten  in  the 
morning;  stays  an  hour;  goes  to  the  coffee-house; 
returns  at  two ;  stays  five  minutes ;  goes  to  dinner : 
returns  at  five,  and  stays  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  then 


HO  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

goes  home.  Such  is  almost  a  regular  journal  of  the 
daily  occurrences. 

For  myself,  I  rise  about  six  o'clock;  go  to  the 
office  and  read  newspapers  till  seven ;  walk  through 
the  market  till  half-past  seven ;  then  go  to  breakfast ; 
return  to  the  counting-house  and  stay  till  one.  From 
one  to  two  I  am  allowed  an  hour  to  dine  in,  and,  as 
that  does  not  take  ten  minutes,  I  have  nearly  an  hour's 
leisure,  in  which  I  generally  read.  At  seven  I  return 
to  my  lodgings,  and  the  evening  have  to  myself.  In  the 
winter  I  expect  to  devote  my  evening  hours  to  writing. 

So  glides  my  bark  adown  the  stream  of  time.  I  do 
not  say  that  its  wave  is  never  ruffled  nor  its  current 
always  smooth.  Every  station  has  its  attendant  cares. 
Yet  I  do  not  think  my  present  one  has  more  than  the 

past. 

#*#*#-* 

A  -ugrist  5. 

I  yesterday  went  over  to  New  Jersey  for  the  purpose 
of  seeing  Catherine  Foote,  and  had  the  honor  of  going 
in  the  same  boat  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bowden  and  Mr. 
Barry,  two  Episcopal  clergymen.  Dr.  Bowden  is 
famous  for  his  "  Letters  to  Dr.  Miller  on  Episcopacy," 
and  is  Professor  of  Logic  and  Belles-Lettres  in  Colum 
bia  College.  Mr.  Barry  preaches  in  the  French 
Church  du  St.  Esprit,  and  occasionally  in  the  church 
in  Jersey  City.  I  waited  nearly  three  hours,  during 
which  time  Mr.  Caldwell's  family  were  gone  to  church, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  m 

before  I  could  see  Catherine,  who  was  gone  to  ride  out 
with  a  Miss  Murray.  During  her  absence,  Dr.  Birch, 
her  attendant  physician,  came  to  visit  her,  and  waited 
with  me  for  some  time.  He  is  a  very  handsome,  fine 
man ;  and  as  I  had,  to  amuse  myself,  taken  up 
Southey's  "  Joan  of  Arc,"  which  I  found  'on  the  table, 
and  was  reading  it  when  he  came  in,  he  commenced  a 
conversation  on  the  subject  of  poetry,  of  which  I  found 
him  to  be  enthusiastically  fond.  He  spoke  of  Campbell 
in  high  terms,  and  repeated  one  of  his  pieces,  which  I 
had  never  read,  written  during  a  visit  to  his  native 
town  in  Argyleshire.  Some  lines  of  it  were  exquisitely 
beautiful.  He  said  that  he  was  well  acquainted  with  a 
gentleman  just  arrived  from  England,  who  was  very 
intimate  with  Campbell,  and  related  that  he  was  now 
at  a  seat  near  London,  but  that  his  circumstances  were 
so  involved,  he  was  obliged  to  confine  himself  for  fear 
of  his  creditors,  and  that  he  was  engaged  in  completing 
a  long  and  labored  poem  for  publication,  the  manu 
script  of  which  his  friend  had  seen.  Dr.  Birch  also, 
speaking  of  Walter  Scott,  affirmed  that  he  sold  his 
copyright  of  the  "  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  to  a  bookseller 
for  the  enormous  price  of  2s.  6d.  sterling  per  line — a 
good  encouragement — faith. 

I  at  length  had  the  pleasure — if  an  emotion  in 
which  pain  was  the  predominant  passion  could  be  so 
termed — of  seeing  Catherine,  but  she  was  so  altered  I 
hardly  knew  her,  so  pale  and  emaciated,  so  ghastly 


112 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


her  countenance,  so  languid  her  eyes,  and  so  feeble 
her  whole  appearance.  I  felt  inexpressibly  affected, 
and  stayed  but  a  short  time.  There  are  some  hopes 
of  her  recovery,  but  alas  !  the  contrary  is  the  dictate 
of  reason. 

Mr.  Caldwell  has  a  pretty  situation,  commanding 
an  extensive  view  of  the  sea,  the  city,  and  the  adjacent 
country,  and  constantly  refreshed  by  the  sea-breezes. 
His  house  is  decently  furnished,  but,  having  lately  had 
a  peep  into  some  other  houses  in  this  city,  I  found 
nothing  in  the  furniture  of  his  to  attract  attention. 
His  daughters  are,  some  of  them,  handsome. 

The  theatre  is  now  shut,  and  has  been  for  two 
months.  I  went  twice  on  my  first  arrival  in  the  city, 
once  to  hear  Cumberland's  "  West  Indian,"  with 
Foote's  farce  of  the  "  Liar,"  and  McFarland's  song  of 
"Oh  the  land  of  sweet  Erin-  is  a  land  of  delight,"  and 
once  to  see  the  powers  of  the  celebrated  Cooke  in 
"  Richard  the  Third,"  and  of  Hobson,  a  good  comic 
actor  and  singer  in  the  "  Lock  and  Key."  Mrs.  Mason 
is  a  good  actress,  and  Mrs.  Stanley  excels  in  tragedy. 
Mrs.  Oldmixon's  powers  of  acting  are  great,  and,  if 
she  was  not  so  abominably  homely  and  ugly,  she 
would  receive  unbounded  applause.  Mrs.  Claude  is 
considered  very  handsome,  but  when  I  saw  her  she 
had  such  an  unconscionable  quantity  of  paint  on  her 
face,  that  she  looked  hideous.  I  like  Miss  Rykman, 
for  my  own  part,  best.  She  sometimes  performs  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  n^ 

character  of  a  waiting  maid,  and  looks  enchanting  in  a 
checked  apron.  Her  character,  however,  like  most  of  the 
rest  of  them,  is  rather  ' '  tollolish, "  to  use  a  Yankee  phrase. 
To  the  circus  I  have  been  once.  It  affords  but 
little  variety,  and  is  always  much  alike.  The  riders 
display  a  great  deal  of  agility  and  dexterity,  and  cer 
tainly  deserve  applause,  which  is  generally  given  by 
the  audience  indiscriminately  and  without  hesitation. 
They  vary  a  little  in  pantomimes.  The  scenery  in 
them  is  beautiful,  but  there  is  little  pleasing  in  witness 
ing  a  conversation  in  which  not  a  word  is  said.  Mr. 
Haswell  sings  the  popular  song  of  "  The  Bay  of  Bis 
cay  O  "  at  the  circus,  and  sings  it  well. 

****** 

A  ugust  14. 

Since  writing  the  foregoing,  I  have  received,  per 
Captain  Elliot,  your  letters  of  the  23d  ult.  and  9th  inst. 
How  E.  Gregory  could  conceive  the  idea  that  I  had 
nothing  to  do,  I  cannot  imagine.  Since  I  have  been 
in  this  office  I  have  not  seen  that  moment.  I  have 
now  a  more  responsible  situation  allotted  me,  in  con 
sequence  of  James  B 's  absence  :  that  of  keeping  the 

ledger,  which,  although  it  entitles  me  to  the  name  of 
bookkeeper  and  gives  me  an  authority  over  the  rest,  yet 
I  find  it,  in  the  poet's  language,  a  "  painful  pre 
eminence,"  as  it  requires  more  care  and  attention  than 
any  other  station  in  the  counting-house,  and  allows  me 
no  leisure  during  business  hours. 


H4  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

Some  of  your  interrogatories  respecting  my  affairs 
are  anticipated  in  the  preceding  scrawls.  Relative  to 
J.  B.'s  age,  I  think  him  about  thirty-two,  and  his  wife, 
perhaps,  twenty-five.  They  have  two  or  three  chil 
dren.  He  has  returned  from  Rockaway  and  now  gone 
to  Albany,  with  his  wrife,  for  two  weeks  or  more. 

I  received  yesterday,  through  Horace  Elliot,  a  letter 
from  George,1  in  which  he  mentions  the  success  of  my 
"  poetry."  I  have  requested  him  to  send  me  the  news 
papers  which  contain  it,  but,  lest  he  should  not,  wish 
you  to  send  them  to  me,  if  you  can  conveniently  do  so. 

In  my  next  I  will  give  you  an  account  of  my  board 
ing-house  acquaintances,  which  are  quite  numerous. 

Please  present  my  compliments  to  Lydia  Cezanne, 
if  she  is  still  in  Guilford. 

Catherine  Foote  left  New  York  for  Guilford  yester 
day.  Poor  girl,  I  shall  see  her  no  more. 

Yours,  F.  G.  H. 

Miss  Cezanne,  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  letter,  is 
the  same  young  lady  to  whom,  in  his  boyish  days,  the 
poet  had  addressed  so  many  stanzas.  The  following 
year,  young  DeKay,  while  pursuing  his  medical  studies 
at  Guilford,  was  quite  captivated  by  the  charming  and 
agreeable  Lydia. 

The  love  of  nature  which  he  had  so  ardently  culti 
vated  in  his  rambles  around  Guilford,  Halleck  con- 

1  George  A.  Foote. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jjtj 

tinued  to  cherish  in  his  city  residence.  At  that  time  it 
was  an  easy  matter  to  reach  the  breezy  hills,  the  gold 
en  orchards,  and  the  green  fields.  The  town  was  not 
built  up  to  Canal  Street,  through  which,  after  passing 
Lispenard's  meadow,  a  sluggish  rivulet  entered  the 
Hudson  River;  beyond,  the  island  was  "charmingly 
diversified  with  heights  and  hollows,  groves  alternating 
with  sunny  openings,  shining  tracks  of  rivulets,  quiet 
country  seats  with  trim  gardens,  broad  avenues  of 
trees,  and  lines  of  pleached  hawthorn  hedges."  On 
the  North  River  shore,  above  Canal  Street,  "  the  dark 
rocks  jutted  out  far  into  the  water,  with  little  bays 
between ;  above  which  drooped  fruit-trees  overrun  with 
wild  vines.  No  less  beautiful  were  the  shores  of  the 
East  River,  where  the  orchards  of  the  Stuyvesant  es 
tate  reached  to  cliffs  butting  over  the  water ;  and  still 
farther  on  were  inlets  between  rocky  banks  bristling 
with  red  cedars.  Some  idea  of  this  beauty  may  be 
formed  from  looking  at  what  remains  of  the  natural 
shore  of  New- York  Island  where  the  tides  of  the  East 
River  rush  to  and  fro  by  the  rocky  ridge  of  Jones's 
Woods."  1 

[TO  MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Aug.  20,  1811. 

DEAR  MARIA  :    In  my  last  I  gave  you  a  long  and 
tedious  account  of  J.  B.  and  his  clerks,  and  promised 

1  William  Cullen  Bryant. 


H6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

to  describe  my  boarding-house  acquaintances  at  some 
future  period.  Uncertain  whether  such  a  subject  is 
pleasing  to  you  or  not,  I  enter  upon  it  not  without 
some  fears  that  you  will  deem  it  but  as  labor  lost,  to 
waste  time  -in  describing  to  you  persons  whom  you 
never  have  known  and  probably  never  will  know ;  yet, 
from  the  necessity  I  am  under  of  writing  you  now  and 
then — for  ceremony's  sake  as  it  were — I  can  think  of 
nothing  that  can  answer  this  purpose  and  furnish  a 
topic  at  this  time  but  this ;  so,  dull  or  delightful,  you 
shall  have  it. 

In  a  place  like  New  York,  a  boarding-house  is  of 
necessity  the  resort  of  strangers,  of  whom  many  stay 
but  a  few  days  and  then  are  off.  This,  though  it  ren 
ders  one's  acquaintance  more  extensive,  yet  prevents 
our  being  intimate  with  each  other.  I  shall  mention 
the  names  of  all  who  have  resided  in  the  house,  not 
excepting  occasional  boarders.  Let  me  see ;  there's 

a  confounded  long  list  of  them.  B d,  B s, 

K g,  M d,  L e,  N s,  B s,  P s, 

T e,  L g,  L 1,  D s,  L d,  B s,  and 

H n. 

B d  is  from  Rocky  Hill,  Conn.,  and  keeps  a  dry 

goods  store  of  his  own  in  William  Street.  He  is  a 
tall  man,  with  a  pale,  sickly  countenance,  famous  for 
making  fun,  and  is  constantly  at  it.  He  sometimes 
renders  himself  really  ridiculous  in  his  attempts  to  ap 
pear  apparently  so ;  but  is  on  the  whole  a  very  good 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  nj 

mimic ;  which  I  think  is  about  all  he  is  good  for,  ex 
cept  to  sing  Irish  songs  and  practice  theatrical  atti 
tudes,  in  both  which  he  excels.  He  is  quite  a  ladies' 
man,  and  figures  in  the  beau-monde  of  William  Street ; 
his  disposition  and  character  are  well  adapted  to  suit 
such  a  fickle,  rattle-headed  set  of  beings  as  the  female 
sex  in  general. 

B— — s  is  about  twenty-two,  and  the  handsomest 
man,  without  exception,  I  ever  saw.  His  dress  is  very 
neat,  and  he  always  looks  as  though  he  had  just  been 
lifted  out  of  a  bandbox.  He  is  a  clerk  to  Cairns  & 
Lord,  dry  goods  dealers,  Pearl  Street.  His  disposition 
appears  very  good,  and  his  conduct  and  character  are 

unimpeachable.  He  is  intimate  with  B d  in  the 

belles'  parties,  but  in  my  opinion  there  is  a  great  dis 
similarity  between  them.  B s  is  from  Hartford, 

Conn. 

K g  is  from  Middletown,  New  Jersey,  a  clerk 

with  Lathrop  &  Carrington,  William  Street,  dry 
goods.  He  is  a  steady,  well-behaved  young  man  ;  is, 
I  believe,  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ;  he  is, 
however,  very  sociable,  and  no  bigot ;  he  understands 
the  French  language,  is  a  good  musician,  and  bids  fair 
to  make  a  worthy  member  of  society. 

M d  is  a  clerk  in  the  Merchants'  Bank,  is  a  mean- 
looking  fellow,  as  his  countenance  bears  an  exact  re 
semblance  to  a  monkey ;  he  was  formerly  a  journey 
man  tailor,  and  worked  with  Mr.  Scoville  in  Albany 


Hg  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

some  months,  but,  as  he  fortunately  writes  a  good  hand, 
has  exchanged  the  thimble  for  the  quill  and  the  shop- 
board  for  the  desk.  He  plays  extremely  well  on  the 
flute,  and  is  a  famous  player  at  whist.  He  is  from 
Ridgefield,  Conn. 

L e  is  with  Simon  Stebbins,  wholesale  grocer, 

Front  Street ;  he  has  a  very  handsome  person,  but  is 
without  doubt  one  of  the  smallest  persons  of  his  size 
I  ever  knew.  His  economy  dwindles  into  meanness, 
though  undoubtedly  he  will  get  rich.  He  writes  a  good 
hand,  and  when  I  lived  in  Guilford  we  used  to  receive 
bills  and  receipts  in  his  handwriting.  I  remarked  it  at 
the  time,  but  had  then  little  expectation  of  ever  being 
acquainted  with  him.  He  too,  is  from  Ridgefield,  Conn. 

N e  is  from  Watertown,  Conn. ;  he  is  a  brother- 
in-law  to  Mr.  Wheeler,  the  Episcopal  clergyman,  whom 
you  probably  recollect  was  in  Guilford  at  the  Convention. 
He  was  formerly  a  clerk  with  Truman  &  Woodward, 
New  Haven,  and  is  now  with  John  B.  Tredwell,  dry 
goods,  Pearl  Street.  He  is  a  very  good  fellow  and  an 
agreeable  companion. 

B s  was  in  New  York  but  a  few  weeks,  he  was 

from  New  Haven,  the  son  of  Nathan  B s,  was  a  still, 

sober-looking  lad,  and  if  he  knew  any  thing,  from 
my  short  intimacy  with  him,  I  could  not  discover  it. 

P s  was  originally  from  Durham.  He  served 

an  apprenticeship  with  Nathan  B s,  New  Haven, 

and  was  in  the  bank  there  for  some  time,  and  now  is 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ny 

with  Stephens  &  Ely,  dry  goods,  Pearl  Street.  He  is  a 
most  beautiful  writer  and  *an  excellent  bookkeeper ;  is 
very  steady,  sedate,  and  reserved;  a  member  of  the 
church ;  though  he  has  disposed  of  enough  of  his 
Connecticut  principles  to  go  to  the  theatre,  occasion 
ally;  and  on  the  whole  I  think  him  the  finest  young 
man  in  the  house;  and  his  principles  appear  to  be 
good,  and  to  be  firmly  and  immovably  rooted,  and  his 
behavior  is  uniformly  correct.  He  has  quite  a  rustic 
appearance,  is  more  than  six  feet  high,  stoops  when  he 
walks,  and  resembles  Joel  Tuttle,  Jun.,  very  much. 

T e  is  from  New  Haven,  was  formerly  with 

Forbes,  Henry  &  Co.,  on  the  Long  Wharf,  and  is  now 
in  the  counting-house  of  N.  &  W.  Starr,  South  Street. 
He  is  a  small,  but  pretty-looking  fellow,  about  twenty- 
one  years  old,  and  I  have  associated  more  with  him  than 
all  the  rest,  as  he  is  very  agreeable  and  good-humored. 
Through  my  acquaintance  with  him  I  have  formed 
quite  an  intimacy  with  two  other  young  men  from  New 
Haven,  who  do  not  board  with  me.  Their  names  are 
Beach  and  Ingersol,  the  latter  is  a  son  of  J.  Ingersol, 
Esq.,  New  Haven. 

L s  is  a  goldsmith.  He  is  from  Norwich,  Conn., 

and  is,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word,  a  real  Blue 
skin. 

L 1  is  from  Washington,  Conn,  (the  same  town, 

by  the  way,  that  Mary  Ann  C 1  was  from,  with 

whom  he  says  he  was  acquainted).  He  is  a  large, 


I20  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

sturdy-looking  fellow,  and  would  make  an  excellent 
farmer — a  business  he  has  always  heretofore  followed — 
quite  awkward  in  his  appearance,  walks  very  slow,  with 
his  toes  turned  in,  and  moves  his  whole  body  whenever 
he  turns  round.  He  is,  however,  possessed  of  consider 
able  information,  and  can  hold  a  conversation  on  almost 
any  subject.  He  is  with  Amory  Gamage,  dry  goods, 
Pearl  Street. 

D s  is  from   Saratoga  County,   near  Ballston 

Springs,  and  is  with  A.  Weston,  grocer,  Burling  Slip. 
He  dresses  very  stylish,  but  is  universally  disliked  in 
consequence  of  his  airs  of  importance  and  the  absurdity 
which  is  stamped  on  all  his  actions.  He  is  what  Hudi- 
bras  would  term 

"a  tool 
That  knaves  do  work  with,  called  a  fool." 

L d,  or  Lord,  for  I  do  not  certainly  know  which 

is  his  true  name,  is  from  Norwich,  Conn.,  and  a  clerk 
with  King  &  Hyde  (where  Richard  Hill  was) ;  he  is  a 
singular-looking  fellow,  and  constantly  wears  a  kind  of 
grin  on  his  countenance,  somewhere  between  a  smile 
and  a  laugh;  a  more  rustic  appearance  no  one  ever 
carried.  He  seems  inclined  to  pay  considerable  atten 
tion  to  me,  and,  as  I  believe  he  is  a  worthy  young  man, 
I  have  no  objection  to  accepting  his  addresses. 

B s  i$  from  Schenectady,  has  been  in  New  York 

but  a  few  days,  so  I  know  but  little  about  him. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  I2i 

H n  is  from  New  Haven,  is  in  Isaac  Carow's 

hardware  store,  Pearl  Street,  and  one  of  the  most  blunt, 
or,  indeed,  rude,  boyish  fellows  I  ever  knew. 

Thus  have  I  effaced  a  large  quantity  of  paper  in  de 
tailing  the  persons  and  characters  of  my  fellow-boarders. 
To  conclude.  There  is  not  one  of  them  whose  ac 
quaintance  I  would  wish  to  cultivate,  nor  with  whom  I 
would  be  willing  to  intrust  my  secrets,  or  place  that 
confidence  in  which  the  name  and  character  of  a  friend 
may  claim.  It  is  very  difficult,  I  find,  to  discover, 
among  the  numerous  fellow-mortals  I  meet  with,  a  per 
son  whose  disposition  and  ideas  are  congenial  with  my 
own,  and  whose  friendship  I  might  cherish  as  a  valuable 

acquisition,  nor  do  I  expect  to  find  one.  G d,  one 

of  my  fellow-clerks,  would  in  most  respects  be  worthy 
one's  esteem  and  confidence,  but  it  requires  a  longer 
acquaintance  to  form  a  just  conclusion. 

I  accidentally  met  Gilston  Ingraham  this  morning. 
He  had  just  come  on  shore  in  a  boat  from  the  frigate 
President,  where  he  is  now  posted ;  he  knew  me  and 
seemed  very  much  pleased  to  see  me.  He  does  not 
appear  the  least  tinctured  with  that  haughtiness  and 
pride  generally  attached  to  his  profession,  but  is,  on 
the  contrary,  too  familiar,  and  talked  with  his  sailors 
as  freely  as  they  did  with  each  other.  I  suspect  he 
never  will  have  much  dignity,  but  his  sailors  all  ap 
peared  to  love  him. 

I  send  you  a  Boston  newspaper,  not  because  it 
6 


122  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

came  from  Boston,  but  that  it  contains  something  which 
will  probably  remind  you  of 

Your  affectionate  brother 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

Halleck  was  soon  advanced  to  a  responsible  posi 
tion,  having  gained  the  entire  confidence  of  the  great 
financier,  Jacob  Barker,  and  winning  troops  of  friends 
by  his  attention  to  business,  his  strict  integrity,  and 
the  possession  of  those  charming  social  characteristics 
which  ever  after  adorned  his  life.  The  evenings  of 
his  first  winter  in  New  York  he  devoted  to  reading 
and  study,  occasionally  visiting  the  Park  Theatre  to 
see  Cooke  or  some  other  celebrated  actors  or  actresses. 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  April  14,  1812. 

DEAR  SISTER  :  I  'wrote  you,  per  Captain  Elliot, 
which  I  trust  you  have  received.  In  that  letter  I  men 
tioned  my  intention  of  visiting  Guilford  soon — a  plan 
which  I  then  expected  to  carry  into  effect  before  this,  or, 
at  least  by  the  2oth  inst.  ;  but  unforeseen  circumstances 
will,  I  apprehend,  detain  me  some  weeks  yet,  and,  per 
haps,  I  may  be  prevented  from  taking  the  projected 
excursion  at  all.  The  sudden  intelligence  of  the  ex 
pected  embargo  law  flew  like  wildfire  through  the  mer 
cantile  part  of  the  city,  and  occasioned  such  a  bustle 
and  such  confusion,  hurry,  and  dispatch,  as  I  never 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^3 

before  witnessed,  and  probably  never  was  witnessed 
here.  Jacob  had  on  Saturday  five  ships  in  port, 
neither  of  which  was  loaded,  and  some  of  them  were 
out  of  repair  and  some  with  inward  cargoes,  and  before 
six  o'clock  on  Tuesday  morning  all  were  at  sea.  Jacob 
himself  went  on  board  the  ship  Lady  Madison  on  Satur 
day,  the  4th,  and  has  not  since  returned,  leaving  his 
bank  affairs  in  quite  a  deranged  state,  which  has  ren 
dered  my  task  much  more  heavy  than  usual,  and  it  will, 
when  he  returns,  require  considerable  time  to  restore 
business  to  its  original  state — of  course  leave  it  very 
uncertain  when  I  can,  with  propriety,  start  for  the 
country.  As  soon,  however,  as  possible,  you  will  see 
me,  as  I  long  to  once  again  be  at  home. 

Gifford  has  returned  in  the  Rodman  from  St.  Do 
mingo,  but  is  quite  unwell  with  the  fever,  contracted 
in  that  climate.  He  has  been  in  New  York  but  three 
days,  and  is  getting  better. 

James  B. r's  application  for  a  commission  in  the 

army  has  proved  hitherto  unsuccessful,  though  he  still 
indulges  the  hope  of  an  appointment  soon.  Yet, 
knowing  the  extreme  uncertainty  attached  to  such  an 
expectation,  he  has  lately  informed  me,  in  a  confiden 
tial  manner,  that  he  has  not  only  determined  to  enlist 
under  the  banner  of  Mars,  but  also  to  become  a  can 
didate  for  offering  an  oblation  on  the  altar  of  Hymen, 
and  he  very  kindly  gave  me  an  invitation  to  his  wed 
ding,  to  take  place  in  about  four  weeks.  I  took  it  for 


I24  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

granted  that  a  reconciliation  with  his  "  dearly-beloved 
and  never-to-be-forgotten"  Rebecca,  Naiad  of  the 
sylvan  floods  of  Coldsprings  (Long  Island),  had  led  to 
this  happy  conclusion  of  a  long  and  serious  courtship, 
but,  to  my  astonishment,  he  told  me  that  he  and 
Rebecca  had  parted,  to  meet  no  more,  and  that  the 
attractions  of  Miss  Somebody — I  cannot  recollect  her 
name — of  Gold  Street,  consisting  of  a  tolerable  hand 
some  person,  a  pretty  good  disposition,  and  a  fortune 
of  12,000  dollars,  had  obliterated  the  remembrance  of 
Rebecca  from  his  mind,  and  induced  him  to  make  pro 
posals  of  marriage,  which  were  accepted,  and  are  to 
be  consummated  in  four  weeks.  So  much  for  James 

B r. 

You  enquired  in  some  of  your  letters  if  I  had  ever 
seen  Laura  Betts.  Yes,  I  have  seen  her,  but  very 
seldom — perhaps  four  times  in  the  course  of  six 
months.  * 

In  haste,  I  am, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

FITZ-G.  HALLECK. 

[TO    ISRAEL  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  April  24,  1812. 

DEAR  SIR  :  From  the  expectation  of  seeing  you  in 
Guilford  soon,  I  have  delayed  writing  for  some  weeks 
past ;  but,  as  the  time  of  that  expected  visit  has  been 
prolonged  much  further  than  I  anticipated,'  I  am 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  12$ 

obliged  to  substitute  that  kind  of  conversation  of  which 
pen,  ink,  and  paper  are  the  instruments,  in  place  of 
that  far  more  pleasing  method  which  is  carried  on  face 
to  face. 

The  new  embargo  law  has  deadened  for  the  pres 
ent  the  exertions  of  the  mercantile  part  of  this  city, 
and  the  approaching  election  appears  to  excite  the 
attention  of  all,  and  operates,  instead  of  business,  to 
prevent  industry  from  slumbering.  If  one  can  judge 
from  the  language  of  the  newspapers,  the  proper 
vehicles  for  communicating  the  sentiments  of  the  par 
ties  to  which  the  particular  newspapers  are  attached, 
far  more  difference  of  opinion  prevails  in  this  city 
between  those  who  style  themselves  Republicans,  than 
between  even  Republicans  and  Federalists  themselves. 
The  clashing  interests  of  the  Madisonian  and  Clin- 
tonian  parties  occasion  the  most -violent  paper  war, 
and  indeed  create  personal  animosity,  and  many  indi 
viduals  are  acquiring,  by  means  of  zeal  and  assiduity  as 
partisans,  a  name  in  the  political  world,  who,  other 
wise,  during  the  calm  measures  of  undisturbed  Repub 
licanism,  would  never  have  emerged  beyond  their 
native  littleness. 

****** 
Your  affectionate  son, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

The  gift  which  he  carried  back  to  Guilford  for  the 
home  circle,  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit,  at  the 


I26  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

expiration  of  nearly  a  year's  service  with  Mr.  Barker, 
was  an  ivory  miniature,  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
author.  The  artist  was  an  Englishman,  concerning 
whose  family  nothing  was  known,  and  who  was  believed 
to  be  here  under  an  assumed  name.  He  called  him 
self  Brown,  but,  from  the  mystery  which  surrounded 
him,  he  was  by  the  public  known  as  "  Mysterious 
Brown."  He  was  the  best  miniature-painter  in  New 
York  at  that  time,  and  numbered  among  his  pupils 
Nathaniel  Rogers,  who,  at  a  later  period,  acquired 
considerable  celebrity  as  an  artist.  Halleck  celebrated 
his  return  to  Guilford  by  giving  an  entertainment  at 
the  principal  inn,  to  which  he  invited  five  of  his  young 
friends  and  fellow-townsmen.  The  merry  party  sat 
down  to  their  supper  and  champagne  at  eight  o'clock, 
and,  with  song  and  story,  kept  up  the  convivial  meet 
ing  until  the  "  sma'  hours  ayont  the  twal,"  going 
home,  like  Willie  and  his  two  friends,  in  the  famous 
bacchanalian  song, 

"  With  just  a  drappie  in  our  ee." 

The  two  survivors  of  the  supper-party  recall  that 
joyous  evening  with  Halleck,  at  "  The  Traveller's 
Home  "  of  Guilford,  as  among  the  happiest  of  their 
lives,  and  one  that  will  never  be  forgotten 

"  While  Memory  holds  her  seat." 
From  this  delightful  visit  to  the  home  of  his  boy- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  I2j 

hood,  -with  its  many  cherished  scenes  and  "  the  old  fa 
miliar  faces,"  we  find  the  poet  returning  to  New  York, 
at  the  expiration  of  a  fortnight,  in  the  Boston  stage, 
steamers  not  yet  having  been  established  on  Long 
Island  Sound. 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  June  12,  1812. 

DEAR  SISTER  :  I  arrived  here  on  Wednesday  morn 
ing  about  five  o'clock,  after  a  very  pleasant,  though  in 
the  night  a  fatiguing  ride  of  twenty  hours  from  Guil- 
ford.  Although  at  the  commencement  of  my  journey 
appearances  threatened  a  very  crowded  stage,  yet  all 
my  companions  from  G.  were  left  at  New  Haven,  and 
I  had  only  one  fellow-passenger  from  thence  to  New 
York,  a  Mr.  Wolcott,  son  of  Alexander  Wolcott,  of 
Middletown,  whose  name  you  may  perhaps  remember 
as  famous  in  the  annals  of  Connecticut  politics.  He 
proved  an  agreeable  companion — and,  what  is  rare  at 
the  present  day — was  enthusiastically  fond  of  poetry, 
and  having  a  memory  at  least  equal  to  my  own.  We 
astonished  the  stage  drivers  with  our  declamations  and 
quotations  and  rhapsodies  and  criticisms  during  the 
journey.  He  is  an  officer  in  the  United  States  service 
(old  establishment),  and  going  to  New  York  to  join  his 
regiment. 

I  was  received  with  a  welcome  the  most  cordial  and 
ardent  I  could  wish,  and,  indeed,  far  beyond  my  expec 
tations.  Sam.  shook  my  hand  with  a  grasp  which, 


I28  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

though  rather  unpleasant,  bespoke  the  honest  disposi 
tion  of  his  heart.  McCarthy  received  me  with  that 
finished  politeness  of  which  his  education  and  country 
had  made  him  perfectly  master,  and  seemed  earnestly 
pleased  to  see  me.  Tom  welcomed  me  with  a  burst 
of  frantic  laughter,  and  seemed  overjoyed ;  and  Jacob 
appeared  to  be  as  glad  to  see  me  as  if  I  had  been  his 
own  son  and  returned  after  an  absence  of  twenty  years. 
He  shook  my  hand  with  both  his,  and  kept  smiling  for 
an  hour  after,  told  me  I  was  welcome  home  again,  glad 
to  see  thee,  etc.  ;  and  even  his  brother  Abraham,  the 
Dutchman, 

-  "  Relaxed  his  furrowed  brow  and  learned  to  smile." 

I  slept  most  of  the  next  day  and  am  now  as  bright 
as  a  button  ("  Yankee  phrase"},  and  happy  to  find  my 
self  once  more  engaged  in  something  to  do. 
Affectionately  yours, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  following  letters,  Halleck 
embarked  in  the  commission  business  on  his  own  ac 
count,  having  for  a  partner  Thomas  Barker,  a  relative 
of  Jacob,  but  continued  it  only  for  a  short  period,  as 
the  second  war  with  Great  Britain  caused  great  disasters 
in  the  mercantile  circles  of  New  York;  the  young 
house  of  Halleck  &  Barker  being  among  the  suffer 
ers,  and  they  were  compelled  to  stop  payment.  It 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  I2g 

was  a  humiliating  ordeal  to  go  through  for  so  high- 
spirited  and  honorable  a  man  as  Fitz-Greene  Halleck, 
who  was  in  reality  merely  a  nominal  party  to  the 
concern. 

[COPY.] 

NEW  YORK,  7th  mo.  7,  1812. 

ESTEEMED  FRIEND  :  The  situation  of  my  commer 
cial  concerns  in  this  unfortunate  state  of  public  affairs 
requires  my  whole  attention.  1  have  therefore  handed 
over  to  my  friends  and  relative,  Halleck  and  Barker,  all 
the  Commission  business  which  was  under  my  care 
when  war  took  place,  and  they  will  punctually  account 
to  my  several  employers  for  the  goods  on  hand,  and 
the  proceeds  of  such  as  had  been  sold  for  which  pay 
ments  had  not  at  that  time  been  collected. 

Be  pleased  to  accept  my  grateful  acknowledgments 
for  the  confidence  heretofore  reposed  in  me,  and  per 
mit  me  to  solicit  an  extension  thereof  to  Halleck  and 
Barker,  who  are,  in  my  estimation,  well  qualified  to  do 
justice  to  any  business  that  may  be  intrusted  to  their 
care. 

Very  respectfully  I  am 

thy  assured  friend, 
(Signed)  JACOB  BARKER. 

NEW  YORK,  July  7,  1812. 

DEAR  SIR  :  Referring  you  to  the  annexed  circular 
of  our  much  esteemed  friend  and  relative,  Mr.  Jacob 


130  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Barker,  we  beg  leave  to  inform  you  that  we  shall  con 
fine  ourselves  exclusively  to  the  Commission  business, 
and  to  assure  you  that  no  exertion  shall  be  wanting  on 
our  part  to  promote  the  interest  of  those  who  may  be 
pleased  to  favor  us  with  their  commands. 
Your  obedient  servants, 
Signature  of  Fitz-G.  Halleck.     (Signed) 

HALLECK  &  BARKER. 
Signature  of  Thomas  Barker.     (Signed) 

HALLECK  &  BARKER. 

The  following  long  letter  gossips  familiarly  and 
pleasantly  about  several  of  his  city  and  country  friends, 
and  chronicles  his  removal  from  his  boarding-house  to 
two  comfortable  rooms  in  Greenwich  Street,  which  he 
occupied  in  company  with  a  young  Frenchman  : 

[TO  MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Feb'y  zd,  1813. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  Owing  to  an  unaccountable 
neglect  on  the  part  of  the  bearer  of  your  letter  of  the 
1 8th  ultimo,  I  did  not  receive  it  till  yesterday,  although 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  it  has  been  in  town  nearly  a 
week,  and  the  intimacy  which  once  subsisted  between 
me  and  the  bearer  of  it  certainly  warranted  an  expecta 
tion  of  a  speedy  delivery  of  a'  message,  or  letter,  to 
me,  as  soon  as  possible  after  arrival  in  town.  From 
this  circumstance  I  am  led  to  remark  that  I  have  re- 


FITZ-GREE'NE  HALLECK.  j^i 

ceived  no  letters  from  any  of  my  Guilford  correspond 
ents  for  a  long  time  past,  and  know  not  how  to  account 
for  their  neglect  and  indifference  towards  one  who  is 
unconscious  of  having  merited  such  treatment.  I  cer 
tainly  am  fallen  "  to  dumb  forgetfulness  a  prey  "  in 
their  minds,  and,  as  from  an  ignorance  of  my  crimes 
to  punish  which  they  adopt  this  method,  I  feel  unwill 
ing  to  attribute  to  myself  any  part  of  the  blame 
attached  to  the  violator  of  the  vows  of  friendship.  I 
shall  endeavor  to  forget  with  equal  readiness,  and 
intrude  no  longer  upon  the  patience  of  those  whose 
conduct  evidently  declares  their  willingness  to  forget 
and  be  forgotten.  Nor  shall  one  tear  be  suffered  from 
mine  eye  to  flow,  one  sigh  to  rend  my  bosom,  to  past 
remembrances  and  hours  engraven  on  the  page  of 
memory  due.  Sublime  !  Please  ask  George  Foote, 
whose  acquaintance  I  would  gladly  cherish,  whose  vir 
tues  and  amiable  qualities  I  shall  ever  admire,  and 
whose  friendship  I  shall  always  prize  far  above  my 
other  Guilford  companions,  what  is  the  reason  for  his 
silence,  as  I  know  not  but  he  thinks  me  blameable  for 
not  calling  on  his  brother's  family  here  in  town  and  for 
not  paying  a  visit  to  his  sister  Harriet  during  her  stay 
here.  If  so,  I  plead  guilty,  but  must  beg  him  to  tell 
me  so  in  plain  English,  that  I  may  know  what  kind  of 
apology  he  requires,  acknowledging,  as  I  do,  that  one 
is  requisite.  If  this  is  not  the  cause,  I  am  ignorant  of 
it.  Just  hint  this  to  him — will  you  ? 


1^2  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

I  trust  that  ere  this  you  have  received,  per  Captain 
Elliot,  the  book  which  I  promised.  Its  not  being  sent 
before  is  accounted  for  in  the  letter  accompanying  it. 
A  new  poem  came  yesterday  from  the  press,  and  an 
other  is  expected  in  eight  or  ten  days.  "  The  Emerald 
Isle,"  by  Charles  Philips,  and  "  Rokeby,"  by  Walter 
Scott.  The  former  I  have  purchased,  but  have  not 
yet  perused  it,  so  that  I  cannot  form  any  opinion  of  its 
merits,  but,  from  the  first  lines,  I  am  inclined  to  think  it 
something  above  mediocrity.  The  latter  you  may  be 
assured  I  shall  peruse  as  soon  as  it  is  published,  and 
soon  after  you  may  expect  them  both.  I  have  again 
resumed  my  former  habits  of  reading,  in  a  great  meas 
ure,  having,  as  I  formerly  observed,  obtained  almost  a 
sufficient  knowledge  of  the  world ;  and,  in  order  to 
enable  myself  to  read  and  take  a  little  comfort  without 
interruption,  as  well  as  for  several  other  reasons,  I 
have  .adopted  a  plan  of  living,  rather  singular  and  ec 
centric  in  this  country,  although  common  and  generally 
practised  in  England  and  other  countries  in  Europe. 
Disgusted  with  the  inconveniences  and  difficulties  of 
every  description  which  a  residence  in  a  boarding- 
house,  however  agreeable,  compels  one  to  put  up  with, 
a  young  Frenchman  of  my  acquaintance  and  myself 
have  hired  furnished  lodgings  in  Greenwich  Street, 
consisting  of  two  rooms  on  the  second  floor,  one  con 
taining  our  .two  beds,  trunks,  etc.,  the  other  we  call 
our  drawing-room,,  being  devoted  to  the  purpose  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  133 

sitting  and  seeing  our  friends  in.  The  rooms  are  very 
neat  and,  indeed,  elegant,  well  furnished,  and  precisely 
calculated  to  suit  our  wishes.  The  family,  a  lady  and 
her  little  sisters,  who  occupy  the  lower  apartments, 
furnish  our  breakfast,  and  our  other  meals  we  get  at 
the  City  Hotel  or  anywhere  we  please,  or  go  without, 
which  is  often  the  case.  We  hire  a  servant  to  make 
our  fires,  brush  our  boots,  clothes,  etc.,  and,  as  we 
have  no  connection  with  the  other  residents  in  the 
house,  we  find  ourselves  perfectly  free  from  interrup 
tion  ;  and,  after  the  business  of  the  day  is  over,  I  find  in 
my  present  situation  more  real  rational  enjoyment  than 
I  have  experienced  since  I  left  Guilford.  We  pay  ten 
dollars  per  week  for  our  rooms  and  three  dollars  per 
month  to  our  servant,  which,  with  dinner,  supper,  fire 
wood,  candles,  and  wine,  makes  it,  it  is  true,  a  more  ex 
pensive  establishment  than  in  a  boarding-house,  but  the 
superior  convenience  and  pleasantness  amply  compen 
sate  for  the  additional  expense.  We  have  been  only  a 
week  in  our  new  lodgings,  and  feel  well  satisfied  so  far 
in  our  choice — the  only  objection  (and  that  is  but  a  small 
one)  is  the  distance  from  our  rooms  to  the  office,  it 
being  nearly  a  mile,  and  you  may  imagine  it  would  be 
something  of  a  task  to  walk  in  a  cold,  slippery  morn 
ing,  from  Clapbord  Hill  to  the  meeting-house  in  Guil 
ford,  which  is  a  tolerable  comparison,  although  our  walk 
is  not  quite  so  long.  My  companion  is  a  fine  young 
man,  and  very  agreeable.  I,  perhaps,  mentioned  his 


!34  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

name  to  you  while  in  Guilford — Eugene  MacCarthy. 
He  is  a  native  of  Bordeaux,  although  of  Irish  parents. 
His  connections  are  very  rich,  as  well  as  himself,  and 
he  came  to  America  for  the  purpose  of  becoming  ac 
quainted  with  the  American  manner  of  doing  business, 
and  eventually  establishing  himself  as  a  merchant  here  in 
company  with  his  brothers  in  Bordeaux,  who  form  a  very 
respectable  house  there  under  the  firm  of  MacCarthy 
Brothers.  From  their  extensive  mercantile  acquaint 
ance  he  was  furnished  with  letters  to  the  first  houses  in 
the  United  States,  which  introduced  him,  joined  to  his 
polished  manner  and  amiable  character,  to  the  highest 
circles  in  the  fashionable  world,  although  he  generally 
declines  cultivating  these  acquaintances,  until  estab 
lished  in  business.  He  speaks  French,  English,  Ger 
man,  Spanish,  and  Italian  equally  well,  plays  on  half  a 
dozen  instruments,  and  sings  and  dances  admirably. 
He,  however,  has  one  of  the  ugliest  faces  (though  his 
person  is  handsome)  that  I  ever  met  with.  His  agent 
here,  Mr.  Denton,  of  the  house  of  Denton,  Little  & 
Co.,  in  compliance  with  MacCarthy 's  wish,  recommend 
ed  him  to  Mr.  Barker,  and  he  has  accordingly  written 
in  our  counting-house  nearly  eight  months.  He  re- 
receives  no  compensation,  of  course.  *  *  *  So 
much  for  connection,  birth,  fortune  and  other  inci 
dental  circumstances,  for  which  he  is  neither  to  be 
praised  nor  blamed.  I  will  now  speak  of  him  as  a 
man.  He  is  an  agreeable  companion,  an  obliging 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  l^ 

friend,  an  accomplished  gentleman,  and  possessed  of 
an  amiable,  friendly,  benevolent  disposition.  With 
such  qualities,  I  cannot  but  be  pleased  with  him.  We 
met  with  many  amusing  adventures  while  in  pursuit  of 
lodgings,  finding  it  rather  difficult  to  suit  ourselves. 
One  great  obstacle  was  our  having,  unfortunately, 
called  first  at  a  most  elegant  house,  where  they 
thought  proper  to  ask  us  the  moderate  price  of  twenty 
dollars  per  week  for  two  rooms,  one  on  the  second 
story,  superbly  furnished,  the  other  in  the  fifth  story, 
beggarly  and  mean.  I  told  the  lady  who  escorted  us 
round  the  apartments  that,  as  neither  of  us  was  a  poet, 
we  were  not  ambitious  of  so  exalted  a  dwelling,  and 
urged  the  circumstance  of  the  rooms  not  being  on  the 
same  floor  as  an  insurmountable  objection.  The 
beauty  and  elegance  of  the  room,  however,  was  in  our 
mind's  eye  whenever  we  called  in  quest  of  apartments, 
and  the  comparison  between  it  and  every  new  room  we 
entered  (and  we  visited  twenty  houses  in  our  search) 
was  so  great,  that  even  tolerable  accommodations  ap 
peared  mean  when  placed  in  competition  with  Mrs. 
Mann's  fine  room.  We  at  length,  however,  found 
what  we  wanted  exactly,  and  our  present  lodgings, 
though  not  quite  so  richly  furnished,  are  more  pleasant 
than  Mrs.  Mann's. 

Thus  far  of  myself.  I  will  now  say  something  of 
the  friends  you  mention.  James  Baker,  Lieutenant 
United  States  Artillerists,  has  been  since  his  marriage 


I36  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

stationed  at  Governor's  Island,  in  our  harbor,  where 
his  wife  has  resided  with  him.  I  have  seen  him  but 
seldom,  although  strongly  importuned  to  call  and  visit 
at  his  quarters.  At  our  last  interview,  some  three 
weeks  ago,  he  informed  me  that  he  had  procured  a  fur 
lough,  with  an  intention  of  going  to  Virginia,  for  the 
purpose  of  settling  some  concerns  relative  to  his  wife's 
property  in  that  State,  which  he  expected  would  detain 
him  two  or  three  months.  I  therefore  conclude  he  has 
gone  on  that  route. 

Gifford  has  recovered  from  his  fever,  which  was 
occasioned  by  the  sultry  climate  of  St.  Domingo,  and 
during  the  summer  he  has  written  in  the  office  of  the 
Contractor  for  the  War  Department,  but  lately  he  has 
left  there  in  disgust,  and  contemplates  a  voyage  to 
Madeira  in  one  of  Mr.  Barker's  vessels. 

Mr.  Deputy  Weekes,  as  Seton  used  to  call  him,  is 
well,  and  still  stays  with  us,  although  he  has  been  of 
age,  the  time  to  which  he  agreed  to  stay,  for  three  or 
four  months.  He  is  not  yet  a  finished  merchant,  and 
will  require  a  little  grinding  over  before  he  becomes 
one.  Excuse  my  relating  an  anecdote  respecting  his 
title  of  Deputy.  .Seton,  whose  name  you  probably 
recollect  as  residing  here  for  a  short  time  after  my 
entrance,  was  naturally  very  fond  of  a  joke,  and  de 
lighted  in  bothering  poor  Sam.  by  calling  him  deputy 
before  every  stranger,  no  matter  who  that  happened  to 
be  in  company  with  them,  and  one  morning,  in  Jacob's 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^7 

absence,  a  gentleman  called  to  see  him,  who,  by  the 
way,  proved  to  be  a  member  of  Congress.  He  in 
quired  of  Seton  who  was  below-stairs,  if  Barker  was  in. 
He  said  no,  but,  with  the  most  grave,  sober  counte 
nance  imaginable,  added  that  his  Deputy,  one  Mr. 
Weekes,  was  up-stairs,  who  could  answer  any  inquiries 
he  had  to  make.  The  gentleman  accordingly  walked 
up,  and  Seton  tripped  after  him  to  listen  at  the  door. 
I  was  in  the  room  with  Sam.  when  he  entered.  He 
inquired  which  was  Mr.  Weekes..  I  bowed  toward 
Samuel.  The  stranger  advanced,  bowed  very  respect 
fully,  and  offered  his  hand.  Sam.  stared  like  a  stuck 
pig,  and,  after  some  hesitation,  received  his  hand,  and 
shook  it  very  heartily.  The  gentleman  then  mentioned 
his  business,  and  observed  that  as  Mr.  Weekes  was,  as 
he  understood,  Mr.  Barker's  agent,  he  concluded  he 
could  give  him  every  information  requisite.  Sam., 
who  of  the  whole  business  was  entirely  ignorant,  began 
to  hem  and  stutter.  I  looked  at  the  door  and  saw  Seton 
winking  at  me  through  the  opening,  which  let  me  into 
the  secret  at  once.  The  gentleman  stood,  wondering, 
I  suppose,  at  Sam.'s  bashful  appearance,  when  Seton, 
who  could  no  longer  resist,  burst  into  a  loud  laugh, 
which  astonished  and  vexed  the  stranger,  who  began 
to  think  we  had  combined  to  insult  him,  until  I  ex 
plained  to  him  the  motive,  and  directed  him  to  Jacob 
for  the  answer  to  his  inquiries. 

Davis  gets  along  in  business  very  rapidly,  and  I 


138  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

have  no  doubt  will  in  a  few  years  be  an  eminent  mer 
chant.  He  is  a  fortune-hunter,  and  has  lately  discovered 
a  very  handsome  girl,  whose  father  he  thinks  to  be 
rich,  and  he  accordingly  is  laying  a  train  to  get  posses 
sion  of  her  and  her  money,  the  latter  being  his  real 
object.  How  he  will  succeed  is  uncertain.  He  is  still 
very  intimate  with  me,  and  visited  Madame  Le  Roy's 
boarding-house,  during  the  last  three  months  of  my 
stay  there,  every  night  regularly.  He  generally  played 
whist,  finding  enough  there  ready  to  join  him,  of  which 
he  is  very  fond.  For  my  part,  as  I .  seldom  play,  I 
used  to  go  off  to  bed  about  eleven,  leaving  him  sans 
ceremonie.  At  twelve  he  usually  departed. 

In  Madame  Le  Roy  and  Adelaide,  as  I  did  not  give 
you  a  very  particular  description,  you  can  feel  but 
little  interest.  Adelaide  has  gone  to  Rhode  Island  at 
present.  Apropos  of  her,  a  laughable  occurrence  took 
place  a  month  or  two  since.  Perhaps  I  informed  you 
that  her  husband  was  a  dissipated  fellow,  and  that  a 
separation  had  taken  place.  She  visited  Philadelphia 
some  time  since,  and,  on  her  return,  was  accompanied 
in  the  stage  by  two  gentlemen,  one  a  Frenchman,  the 
other  a  Russian,  who  came  and  boarded  at  our  house. 
The  former,  Monsieur  Chemanan,  whom  I  mentioned 
as  an  officer  in  Bonaparte's  guard  in  my  last  long  letter, 
paid  some  attention  to  Adelaide,  such  as  going  with 
her  to  balls,  theatres,  etc.,  which,  although  no  more 
than  a  stranger  might  be  expected  to  pay  to  the  only 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  139 

lady  witH  whom  in  the  city  he  was  acquainted,  yet  it 
formed  a  sufficient  ground  for  the  latter,  a  droll  genius, 
whose  whole  business  was  amusement,  whose  sole  ob 
ject  sport,  to  found  a  good  joke  upon.  A  few  days 
after  Cheinanan's  return  to  Philadelphia,  Adelaide  re 
ceived  a  letter  from  him,  couched  in  the  most  submis 
sive,  tender,  and  heart-rending  language  that  the 
complimentary  genius  of  a  Frenchman  and  the  fervor 
of  apparent  love  could  possibly  invent,  addressing  her 
"  My  adorable  Adelaide,"  describing  how  miserable 
he  had  been  since  he  left  her,  declaring  that  he  could 
not  live  without  her,  and,  after  expressing  his  knowl 
edge  of  her  situation  relative  to  her  husband,  and  his 
willingness  to  wait  till  the  necessary  forms  of  law  should 
free  her  from  him,  concluding  with  an  absolute  pro 
posal  of  marriage  in  gopd  earnest.  Adelaide  was  a 
little  surprised,  and  showed  me  the  letter.  I  laughed, 
yet  had  not  the  least  idea  that  the  letter  was  a  forgery 
until  some  days  after.  Martini,  the  Russian,  informed 
me  confidentially  that  he  had  himself  written  it,  and 
showed  me  another  forged  letter,  from  Chemanan  to 
himself,  begging  him  as  a  friend  to  intercede  with 
Adelaide  in  his  favor.  He  was  very  apprehensive, 
however,  that  Adelaide  would  either  send  his  let 
ter  back  unanswered,  or  answer  it  in  some  way  or 
other  which  would  not  only  blow  up  the  whole  plot, 
but  subject  him  to  a  quarrel  with  Chemanan,  and  I 
accordingly  told  her  that  she  had  better  burn  the  letter, 


140  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

which  she  did,  and,  after  making  himself  a  great  deal 
of  sport  about  it,  he  at  length  disclosed  the  whole, 
which  ended  the  affair. 

I  send  you  herewith  some  newspapers  containing 
several  of  our  advertisements.  If  the  sight  of  them  will 
be  satisfactory  to  you,  I  am  glad  of  it.  They  are 
pompous  enough,  in  all  conscience.  Had  you  taken  a 
more  strict  view,  you  might  have  discovered  on  the 
last  page  of  the  newspaper  in  which  the  inkstand,  etc., 
were  enclosed,  an  advertisement  in  French  and  English 
of  ours.  We  are  doing  very  little  now,  however.  The 
blockade  has  ceased  for  the  present,  the  British  having 
retired  from  the  coast.  It  will  probably  be  resumed 
soon ;  and  if  they  do  not  attack  the  city  and  batter  it 
to  atoms  I  shall  be  agreeably  disappointed. 

Your  description  of  the.  squirrel  adventure  was 
really  extremely  entertaining.  Please  accept  MacCar- 
thy's  compliments  on  your  style  and  talent  at  the 
description,  for  I  showed  him  this  story,  which  we 
joined  in  admiring.  A  stranger  might  certainly  form 
a  very  correct  opinion  of  Sarah's  character  from  this 
little  anecdote. 

I  am  extremely  sorry  that  Lydia's  time  is  so  much 
better  occupied  as  to  prevent  her  scribbling  me  a  line 
or  two.  I  should  be  well  pleased  to  learn  from  her 
own  words  the  character  of  young  McKay,  and  if  the 
person  possesses  so  much  attraction,  surely  the  task 
of  describing  his  virtues  and  delineating  his  amiable 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  I4-1 

qualities  cannot  but  be  a  pleasing  one  to  her ;  and  if 
her  hands  are  so  full  of  employment  on  his  account 
that  she  cannot  hold  the  pen,  let  her  dictate  to  him. 
He  can  write,  and  she  can  just  put  X  her  mark  at  the 
conclusion,  which,  while  it  gives  me  the  gratification 
of  receiving  a  letter  either  directly  or  indirectly  from 
her,  gives  her -also  that  of  gazing  at  his  fingers  as  they 
move,  and  admiring  his  "readiness  to  oblige  her,  and 
for  the  moment,  at  least,  keeps  him  out  of  harm's  way, 
that  is,  out  of  the  way  of  the  little  girls. 

There  appears  to  be  quite  a  marrying  fashion  in 
your  town  at  present.  Three  or  four,  I  think,  I  have 
been  informed  of  lately.  Hold  up  your  heads,  girls. 
Hope  is  still  at  the  bottom  of  the  box. 

I  have  no  great  opinion  of  a  Mosses  Go,  although  I 
believe  it  yields  some  entertainment.  I  have  been  on 
several  sleighing  parties  lately,  which  resemble  the 
Guilford  scrapes  astonishingly.  They  are  quite  amus 
ing,  though  the  sameness  tires  soon.  The  usual  route 
for  all  parties  is  out  of  town,  on  the  Bloomingdale, 
Harlem,  and  Manhattanville  roads,  and  the  public 
houses  on  those  roads  are  so  thronged,  that  a  person 
can  hardly  elbow  one's  way  into  the  house.  Although 
you  do  not  mention  any  sleighing  yet,  I  trust  you  have 
it  in  abundance  ere  this. 

The  dancing  after  Titus  Hall's  flute,  it  seems,  still 
continues.  I  abhor  the  sound  of  a  flute,  and  ever 
shall,  in  consequence  of  the  aversion  which.  I  conceived 


I4.2  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

against  the  abominable  practice  of  introducing  some 
person  to  play  on  his  flute  who  had  either  just  begun 
learning  or  had  tried  and  could  not  learn,  into  every 
sociable  circle  in  Guilford  where  my  poor  luckless 
wightship  chanced  to  be,  and  your  mentioning  it 
brought  all  the  woeful  scenes  of  this  nature  to  my 
mind,  with  their  whole  train"  of  long  faces,  sober 
reflections,  etc.  So  I  beg  you  to  mention  the  name 
of  Titus  Hall's  flute  no  more,  if  you  have  any  regard 
for  me. 

I  expect  that  Clarissa  B y  and  A.  S.  F r 

"sparked  it"  better  than  Charles  and  Sally,  though 
they,  perhaps,  could  learn  of  the  two  former.  I  am 
sorry  that  poor  Mr.  J.  R.  W.  E.  S.  Pitt  (I  believe 
there  are  all  the  letters — are  there  not  ?)  was  so  provok- 
ingly  eclipsed  relative  to  his  fair  partner  at  the  ball. 
By  the  by,  who  did  DeKay,  in  whom  I  feel  some  little 
interest,  go  with.  As  the  boys  generally  in  your 
place  have  their  choice  in  partners  at  the  balls,  his 
partner  may,  perhaps,  determine  on  whom  his  affec 
tions  are  fixed.  His  politeness  to  you  relative  to  the 
letter  deserves  "  honorable  mention,"  and,  as  I  am 
partly  the  person  obliged,  please  give  him  my  compli 
ments. 

Gifford  sends  you  his  compliments,  and  says  that 
he  intends  visiting  Guilford  in  propria  persona  next 
summer,  when  he  shall  be  pleased  to  pay  you  his 
respects.  "  Vive  la  bagatelle  !  " 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  j^ 

In  expectation  of  receiving  an  answer  to  mine,  per 
Captain  Elliot,  in  a  few  days, 

I  am  yours  affectionately, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

On  the  25th  of  May  following,  he  sends  a  letter 
home  in  which  he  says :  "  Having  contemplated  visiting 
you  for  some  time,  I  have  delayed  writing,  and  also 
forwarding  some  books,  in  the  hope  of  being  the  bearer 
of  them  myself.  But  as  it  still  remains  uncertain  when 
or  how  soon  I  can  with  convenience  leave  New  York, 
and  as  the  present  opportunity  is  favorable,  I  send 
herewith  a  Prayer-Book,  Miss  Mitford's  Poems  (a 
charming  work),  and  a  book  for  Abigail,  Andrew 
Elliot's  little  girl ;  which  please  present  her  as  a  pres 
ent  from  me."  In  another  letter  of  August  3ist,  Hal- 
leek  writes  to  his  sister,  "  I  send  you  by  this  convey 
ance  several  books,  viz.  :  '  Life  of  Cooke,'  '  Bridal  of 
Triermain,'  'Aiken's  Poems,'  'Mrs.  Grant's  Poems,' 
'Wilson's  Isle  of  Palms,'  'Horace  in  London,'  and 
'  Eighteen  Hundred  and  Eleven.'  They  are  mostly 
new  publications,  and  I  hope  will  amuse  you.  *  *  * 
I  send  George  Foote  the  '  Lay  of  the  Scottish  Fiddle/ 
which  I  am  quite  sure  will  make  you  laugh.  You  can 
borrow  it  from  him.  I  have  some  other  late  publica 
tions,  but  have  lent  them,  and  cannot  recover  them  at 
present.  When  I  do,  will  send  them  to  you." 

The  first  poem  published  by  Halleck  in  New  York 


J44  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

appeared  anonymously  in  the  columns  of  Charles 
Holt's  Columbian,  December  22,  1813,  and  was  intro 
duced  with  the  accompanying  remarks  by  the  editor  : 

"  The  following  lines  possess  such  singular  beauty 
and  excellence,  that  we  almost  doubt  their  being  origi 
nal.  The  future  favors  of  our  correspondent,  we  hope, 
will  remove  all  suspicions  on  the  subject." 

When  the  bright  star  of  peace  from  our  country  was  clouded, 

Hope  fondly  presaged  it  would  soon  reappear ; 
But  still  dark  in  gloom  the  horizon  is  shrouded, 

And  the  beacon  of  war  blazes  direfully  near. 
Fled  now  are  the  charms  which  the  heart  once  delighted, 

Forgot  the  enjoyments  tranquillity  gave ; 
Every  flow'ret  is  withered,  each  blossom  is  blighted, 

But  the  wreath  that  encircles  the  brows  of  the  brave. 

Though  enchanting  that  wreath  to  the  votary  of  glory, 

Who  soars  on  the  pinions  of  vict'ry  to  fame ; 
Though  the  patriot  bosom  beat  high  at  the  story 

That  emblazons  with  honor  America's  name ; 
Yet,  'tis  only  in  blood  that  the  laurel  can  flourish, 

'Tis  honor's  red  trophy,  'tis  plucked  from  the  grave ; 
And  the  tears  of  the  widow  and  orphan  must  nourish. 

The  wreath  that  encircles  the  brows  of  the  brave. 

Yet  spurned  be  the  man,  to  true  feeling  a  stranger, 

Who  refuses  to  valor  the  meed  it  has  won ; 
'Tis  a  prize  dearly  won  amid  peril  and  danger, 

And  shall  live  when  eternity's  march  is  begun. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^5 

Be  the  arm  ever  hallowed  for  freedom  contending, 
Where  the  star-adorned  banners  of  liberty  wave  ! 

For  the  Heaven-blest  cause  which  the  sword  is  defending 
Renders  sacred  the  wreath  that  encircles  the  brave. 

But  blame  not  the  bard,  that  with  humane  aversion, 

He  shuddering  turns,  as  the  battle-storm  lours, 
And  exults  that  the  aim  of  the  warrior's  exertion, 

Peace  sanctioned  by  honor,  ere  long  shall  be  ours. 
Then  the  warrior  shall  sheathe,  with  a  smile  of  devotion, 

The  blade  that  he  wielded  his  country  to  save, 
And  the  laurels  they  won  on  the  field  or  the  ocean 

Immortal  shall  bloom  round  the  brows  of  the  brave. 

In  the  spring  of  1814  there  was  organized  in  New 
York  a  company  of  light  infantry,  which  took  its  name, 
the  Iron  Grays,  from  the  color  of  the  uniform  adopted 
by  the  corps.  Mr.  Halleck  joined  the  company,  which 
was  composed  of  one  hundred  and  twelve  of  the  leading 
young  men  of  the  city,  with  Samuel  Swartwout  as 
Captain;  Henry  Brevoort,  Jr.,  First  Lieutenant ;  Henry 
Carey,  Second  Lieutenant ;  Philip  Rhinelander,  Third 
Lieutenant,  and  Gouverneur  S.  Bibby,  as  Fourth  Lieu 
tenant.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year, 

"  Swartwout' s  gallant  corps,  the  Iron  Grays," 

as  the  poet  afterward  wrote  in  "  Fanny,"  had  their  en 
campment  adjacent  to  the  Hudson  River,  and  near  Fort 
Gansevoort,  on  Governor  George  Clinton's  farm.  While 
in  camp,  Halleck  composed  his  spirited  and  patriotic 
7 


I46  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

ode,  and,  under  the  most  sacred  promises  of  secrecy  as 
to  its  authorship,  gave  it  to  Charles  W.  Sandford,  a 
young  lawyer,  and  the  youngest  member  of  the  Grays, 
who,  being  a  fine  elocutionist,  was  in  the  habit  of  re 
citing  passages  of  prose  and  verse  for  the  entertain 
ment  of  members  of  the  company.  This  ode,  so  well 
calculated  to  stimulate  their  martial  ardor,  created  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  among  the  Iron  Grays,  and  in 
deed,  throughout  the  encampment,  composed  of  three 
thousand  volunteers,  being  a  portion  of  the  twenty-five 
thousand  called  out  by  Governor  Tompkins  for  the 
defence  of  the  city  against  the  apprehended  attack  by 
the  British.  Halleck  remarked  to  Sandford,  after  hear 
ing  his  poem  recited,  "  Why,  Charlie,  I  had  no  idea  I 
was  a  poet  until  last  night,  when  you  rerJeated  my 
lines."  On  the  25th  of  November,  1814,  the  Iron 
Grays  led  a  column  of  28,000  troops,  which  marched 
through  the  city,  the  largest  number  of  men  that  ever 
took  part  in  a  military  parade  in  New  York ;  and  a 
few  days  later  broke  camp  at  Fort  Gansevoort,  near 
the  termination  of  Fourteenth  Street,  owing  to  a  fall  of 
snow  above  a  foot  deep,  and  went  into  winter-quarters 
on  the  Battery,  where  their  dress-parades  continued  to 
be  one  of  the  attractions  of  the  town.  The  civil  au 
thorities  of  the  city  frequently  attended  the  parades  in 
their  official  capacity,  while  the  military  magnates  of 
the  day  on  duty  in  New  York  were  constant  visitors. 
Winfield  Scott,  after  witnessing  the  evolutions  of  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^7 

Grays,  said,  "  They  are  a  glorious  body  of  men."  An 
enthusiastic  old  gentleman  of  fourscore,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  company,  told  the  writer  that  "  Halleck 
was  the  best  fellow  in  the  Grays,  and  by  God,  sir,  the 
world  never  saw  a  finer  body  of  men.  Every  man  of 
them  was  a  gentleman,  sir !  "  They  were  mustered 
into  the  army  of  the  United  States  for  service  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  were  known  as  "  Sea  Fencibles," 
but  were  never  called  into  active  service,  and  at  the 
end  of  ten  months  they  were  mustered  out. 

In  one  of  Washington  Irving's  letters,  dated  Sep 
tember  26,  1814,  he  says:  "The  Iron  Grays  go  on 
very  well.  They  are  attached  to  a  regiment  com 
manded  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cadwallader  D.  Golden, 
and  will  be  encamped  in  a  few  days  in  the  vicinity  of 
Greenwich."  And  in  Irving's  Life  we  meet  with  the 
following  allusion  to  the  commander  of  the  company  : 
"  Of  a  piece  with  this  military  history *  was  his  jesting 
advice  to  Samuel  Swartwout,  the  major  of  the  Iron 
Grays,  a  choice  corps  to  which  his  friend  Brevoort  be 
longed.  The  major  was  very  fussy  about  their  equip 
ments  :  first  this  thing  was  wrong,  then  that ;  now 
their  guns  were  too  light,  then  they  were  too  heavy. 
'  Put  two  men  to  a  gun,  Sam,'  was  the  remedy  advised 
under  the  annoyance."  This  story  I  have  heard  Hal 
leck  relate  with  great  glee. 

Among  the  "  hundred  and  odd  rank  and  file,"  Hal- 

1  An  anecdote  of  Governor  Tompkins,  vide  "  Irving's  Life  and  Letters." 


1^8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

leek  wrote  in  1860,  "  the  author  had  the  honor  of  being 
mustered,  the  pay  of  each  soldier  during  a  three 
months'  campaign  being  eight  dollars  per  month,  out 
of  which  he  paid  a  little  less  than  eight  dollars  per  day 
for  his  share  of  the  mess-table  expenses."  At  that  time 
no  one  dreamed  that  the  modest  bank-clerk  was  the 
author  of  the  admired  ode,  and  a  score  of  years  had 
passed  before  the  author  gave  George  P.  Morris  per 
mission  to  publish  it,  with  the  poet's  name  appended  as 
the  author.  Mr.  Halleck  never  included  it  in  his  col 
lected  poems,  esteeming  it  as  being  of  a  too  ephemeral 
character  for  that  distinction. 

We  twine  the  wreath  of  honor 

Around  the  warrior's  brow, 
Who,  at  his  country's  altar,  breathes 

The  life-devoting  vow ; 
And  shall  we  to  the  Iron  Grays 

The  meed  of  praise  deny, 
Who  freely  swore,  in  danger's  days, 

For  their  native  land  to  die  ? 

For  o'er  our  bleeding  country 

Ne'er  lowered  a  darker  storm, 
Than  bade  them  round  their  gallant  chief 

The  iron  phalanx  form. 
When  first  their  banner  waved  in  air, 

Invasion's  bands  were  nigh, 
And  the  battle-drum  beat  long  and  loud, 

And  the  torch  of  war  blazed  hisrh  ! 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Though  still  bright  gleam  their  bayonets, 

Unstained  with  hostile  gore, 
Far  distant  yet  is  England's  host, 

Unheard  her  cannon's  roar. 
Yet  not  in  vain  they  flew  to  arms ; 

It  made  the  foeman  know 
That  many  a  gallant  heart  must  bleed 

Ere  freedom's  star  be  low. 

Guards  of  a  nation's  destiny  ! 

High  is  that  nation's  claim, 
For  not  unknown  your  spirit  proud, 

Nor  your  daring  chieftain's  name. 
'Tis  yours  to  shield  the  dearest  ties 

That  bind  to  life  the  heart, 
That  mingle  with  the  earliest  breath, 

And  with  our  last  depart. 

The  angel-smile  of  beauty 

What  heart  but  bounds  to  feel  ? 
Her  fingers  buckled  on  the  belt, 

That  sheathes  your  gleaming  steel. 
And  if  the  soldier's  honored  death 

In  battle  be  your  doom, 
Her  tears  shall  bid  the  flowers  be  green 

That  blossom  round  your  tomb. 

Tread  on  the  path  of  duty, 

Band  of  the  patriot  brave, 
Prepared  to  rush,  at  honor's  call, 

"  To  glory  or  the  grave." 


JCQ  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Nor  bid  your  flag  again  be  furled 

Till  proud  its  eagles  soar, 
Till  the  battle-drum  has  ceased  to  beat, 

And  the  war-torch  burns  no  more. 

Among  the  few  survivors  of  "  The  Iron  Grays  "  who 
are  still  (October,  1868)  living,  are  Gouverneur  S. 
Bibby,  Stephen  Cambreleng,  Henry  and  Dr.  Edward 
Delafield,  who  was  surgeon  of  the  corps,  Hickson  W. 
Field,  James  W.  Gerard,  and  Charles  W.  Sandford. 
Halleck  was  a  private,  and  was  conspicuous  for  a  con 
scientious  performance  of  his  duty,  however  disagree 
able,  which  he  went  through  with  cheerfulness  and 
punctuality,  but,  as  we  learn  from  the  following  letter, 
he  left  the  military  service  of  his  country  with  no  desire 
to  ever  again  participate  in  the  privations  and  discom 
forts  of  camp-life  : 

[TO  MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Dec.  28,  1814. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  Your  letter  of  the  26th  inst.  I 
received  this  morning.  I  have  so  often  plead  "  Guilty" 
to  the  charge  of  "  not  writing,"  so  often  promised 
amendment,  and  so  often  neglected  to  perform  that 
promise,  that  to  say  any  thing  further  on  the  subject 
would  be  alike  unavailing  and  superfluous.  I  am,  how 
ever,  extremely  anxious  to  eradicate  any  unfavorable 
impressions  which  my  late  silence  may  have  created, 
though  I  natter  myself  that  on  your  mind  no  such  im- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  j^j 

pressions  have  been  made ;  for,  however  wanting  in 
reality  the  substance  of  argument  my  former  reasons 
for  such  neglect  might  have  been,  yet  they  were  such 
as  almost  every  tardy  correspondent  acknowledges  the 
force  of,  and,  trifling  as  they  were,  were  sufficiently  im 
portant  to  induce  me  to  deprive  myself  not  only  of  the 
pleasure  which  a  perusal  of  your  more  frequent  letters 
would  have  given  me,  but  also  of  that  sensation  of 
satisfaction  which  fills  the  bosom  whenever  it  is  con 
scious  of  imparting  pleasure  and  delight  to  another, 
particularly  to  one  whom  "  that  bosom  holds  dear." 
*  *  *  *  I  might  write  a  month  on  this  same 
theme  of  writing,  or  rather  of  not  writing  letters,  and 
all  would  teach  you  nothing  new,  and  I  am  sure  would 
be  very  unentertaining,  so  111  say  no  more  about  it. 

I  believe  my  last  letter — I  mean  my  last  long  letter 
— was  written  some  time  in  August  or  September  last. 
'Tis  really  a  long  time  since,  and  I  blush  while  I  think 
of  it — but  stay — I  am  apologizing  again.  I  will  give 
you  a  short  journal  of  how  my  time  has  passed  since 
the  date  of  that  letter.  I  believe  I  told  you  then,  or  if 
I  did  not,  you  have  been  informed  by  Elyngory,  who 
was  in  New  York  at  the  time,  that,  actuated  by  the 
"  spirit  of  Seventy-six,"  or  something  of  that  sort,  I 
joined  a  volunteer  corps  for  the  purpose  of  rushing  to 
"  glory  or  the  grave,"  and  defending  this  famed  city 
against  an  attack  from  "Albion's  warrior-isle."  Had  I 
written  you  at  the  time,  my  letters  would  have  been 


1^2  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

filled  with  "  thoughts  that  breathe  and  words  that 
burn,"  with  expressions  of  heroism  worthy  the  Chevalier 
Bayard,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  or  any  other  the  most  ro 
mantic  of  the  heroes  of  chivalry ;  but  now  the  bustle  of 
the  scene  is  over,  and  with  it  has  fled  my  martial  spirit, 
and  disinterestedness,  and  patriotism.  The  idea  of 
"  seeking  the  bubble  reputation  in  the  cannon's  mouth  " 
no  longer  bears  that  specious  appearance  which  en 
thusiasm  gave  it.  Leaving  that  enthusiasm,  however, 
out  of  the  question,  other  motives  actuated  me  at  the 
moment,  not  quite  so  consistent  with  honor  and  patri 
otic  feeling,  but  conformable  to  true  worldly  wisdom 
and  a  regard  for  the  opinion  of  others.  I  was  conscious 
that  the  dictates  of  duty  were  in  favor  of  defending  one's 
country,  one's  fireside,  wife,  children,  etc.,  in  the  hour 
of  danger.  By  volunteering,  in  a  moment  of  peril  and 
alarm,  to  die  for  their  defence,  I  have  discharged  that 
duty,  and  stand  acquitted  not  only  at  the  bar  of  my  own 
conscience  (if  there  is  any  such  thing  in  the  case),  but 
also  at  that  of  the  world's  opinion,  and  am  now  resolved 
to  volunteer  no  more.  Should  the  enemy  land  and  at 
tack  the  city  during  my  stay  in  it,  I  suppose  I  should  in 
some  way  or  other  assist  to  defend  it,  but  the  roar  of 
their  cannon  must  be  heard,  their  red-cross  flag  must 
wave  before  my  eyes,  ere  I  again  ' '  buckle  on  my  ar 
mor,"  or  make  the  "  flinty  couch  of  war  my  bed." 
The  great  respectability  of  the  corps  I  belonged  to — 
being  many  of  them  my  friends  and  companions  in 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  j^ 

civil  life — and  the  means  we  devised  to  amuse  ourselves 
and  "  brush  the  cobwebs  from  the  brows  of  care " 
during  our  campaign,  rendered  it,  though  far  from 
pleasant,  at  least  tolerable;  and  I  do  not  now  look 
back  with  regret  on  the  time  spent  in  the  camp.  You 
know  it  was  always  my  wish  and  intention  to  "  see  the 
world,"  at  least  as  much  of  it  and  in  as  great  variety  as 
circumstances  would  admit.  This  wish  has  guided  and 
directed  my  conduct  ever  since  I  commenced  my  voy 
age  on  the  world's  wide  ocean,  and  the  certainty  that  I 
was  following  this  guide  during  my  military  career,  in 
a  measure  robbed  it  of  its  vexations,  smoothed  my 
turf-formed  pillow,  and  softened  my  "  pallet  of  straw." 
I  have  seen,  I  have  experienced  the  soldier's  life,  and 
am  in  no  danger  of  being  so  far  dazzled  by  the  "  pride, 
pomp,  and  circumstance  "  of  it,  as  to  enter  it  in  any 
station,  from  a  commander-in-chief  downward,  except 
from  necessity  or  some  very  powerful  reason,  being 
confident  it  will  never  be  my  choice.  You  can  judge 
of  what  a  set  of  men  the  Iron  Grays  were  composed, 
when  I  tell  you  that  many  of  them  were  in  the  habit  of 
coming  to  the  parade  preparatory  to  marching  to  camp, 
a  distance  of  three  miles,  in  their  coaches,  and  curri 
cles  ;  there  they  buckled  on  a  heavy  knapsack,  contain 
ing  blankets,  and  provisions,  marched  three  miles 
through  the  mud,  and  mounted  guard,  sometimes  two, 
sometimes  three  days  at  a  time,  during  which  period 
seven  hours  out  of  ten  were  spent,  day  or  night,  in 


jij^  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  pacing  to  and  fro  a  gravelly  bound  "  of  about  two 
rods,  with  a  musket  on  the  shoulder,  which,  it  being 
some  part  of  the  time  cold,  was  not  very  comfortable  ; 
the  rest  of  the  time  was  passed  through  the  day  in 
smoking  cigars,  lying  on  the  ground  before  the  doors 
of  the  tents,  etc.,  etc.,  being  allowed  to  go  but  one 
hundred  yards  from  the  guard-tent.  In  the  night, 
when  off  guard,  we  bundled  in  sometimes  eight,  some 
times  sixteen  men  in  a  small  tent  just  five  and  a  half 
feet  square,  with  a  small,  precious  quantity  of  straw  to 
lie  on,  and  our  muskets  in  our  arms.  To  sleep  was 
almost  out  of  the  question,  as  the  time  we  were  off 
guard,  even  if  all  had  been  quiet,  was  hardly  sufficient 
to  get  one's  eyes  fairly  closed ;  but  you  must  be  sensi 
ble  that  out  of  one  hundred  men  there  must  be  some 
noisy,  crazy  fellows,  and  we  had  our  share  of  them  ;  so 
that  not  a  quiet  moment  could  be  found  all  night; 
either  a  song,  a  laugh,  or  something  or  other  at  once 
dissolved  every  hope  of  sleep,  if  entertained  for  a  mo 
ment.  For  my  part,  I  made  it  a  point  not  to  sleep 
at  all,  and  sometimes  for  forty-eight  hours  together. 
We  marched  out  to  camp  twice  a  week,  met  in  town  on 
the  parade-ground  four  hours  each  day  for  the  remain 
der  of  the  week,  which,  with  occasional  parades,  etc., 
etc.,  employed  nearly  all  my  time  for  three  months. 
We  received,  or  rather  are  to  receive,  the  pay  of  regu 
lars,  eight  dollars  per  month — the  whole  pay  being 
put  into  common  stock,  and  the  officers  sharing  equally 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  l^ 

with  the  men.  A  very  profitable  business,  for  we  spent 
regularly  when  in  camp  three  dollars  per  day  each. 
However,  we  finished  our  career  with  eclat,  "  sarved  out 
our  term  with  honor,"  as  Niprjerkin  says,  and  received 
very  high  compliments  from  the  commander.  My 
verses  on  the  subject  made  some  noise;  the  author, 
however,  was  only  known  to  a  few.  Another  poem  was 
written,  when  we  first  commenced  our  campaign,  by 
Citizen  Genet,  of  whom  you  have  perhaps  heard.  He 
was  formerly  minister  to  the  United  States  from  the 
French  Republic,  and  rendered  himself  famous  by  a 
long  correspondence  with  Mr.  Jefferson.  He  has  since 
married  a  daughter  of  Governor  Clinton,  late  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  become  an  Ameri 
can  citizen. 

During  the  year  1814,  Halleck  wrote  two  other 
poems,  "  The  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  and  the  following 
beautiful  lines,  only  published,  with  a  few  slight  alte 
rations,  after  an  interval  of  half  a  century,  when  they 
were  introduced  in  his  poem  of  "  Young  America  :  " 

The  heart  hath  sorrows  of  its  own,  and  griefs  it  veils  from  all, 
And  tears  that  hide  them  from  the  world,  in  solitude  will  fall. 
And  when  its  thoughts  of  agony  upon  the  bosom  lie, 
E'en  Beauty  in  her  loveliness  will  pass  unheeded  by. 

'Tis  only  on  the  happy  that  she  never  smiles  in  vain, 
To  them  she  wears  the  rainbow  hues  that  mock  the  summer 
rain : 


jij6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

And  their  free  hearts  will  worship  her,  as  one  whose  home  is 

heaven, 
A  being  of  a  brighter  sphere,  to  earth  a  season  given. 

That  time  with  me  has  been  and  gone,  and  life's  best  music 

now 

Is  but  the  winter  wind  that  bends  the  leafless  forest-bough. 
And  I  would  shun,  if  that  could  be,  the  light  of  young  blue 

eyes; 
They  bring  back  hours  I  would  forget,  and  painful  memories. 

Yet,  Lady,  though  too  few  and  brief,  there  are  bright  mo 

ments  still, 
When  I  can  free  my  prisoned  thoughts,  and  wing  them  where 

I  will. 
And  then  thy  smiles  come  o'er  my  heart,  like  sunbeams  on 

the  sea, 
And  I  can  feel  as  once  I  felt,  when  all  was  well  \vith  me. 

Of  the  "  Ugly  Club,"  mentioned  in  the  following 
letter,  I  have  no  further  information  than  that  its  mem 
bers  consisted  of  the  handsomest  young  men  of  that 
day  to  be  found  in  New-York  City,  and  that  they  had 
frequent  convivial  meetings  at  their  headquarters  in 
Wall  Street,  a  few  doors  from  Broadway.  The  gentle 
man  to  whom  the  letter  is  addressed  is  one  of  the  sur 
vivors  of  the  merry  party  that  sat  down  to  the  poet's 
entertainment  given  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  Guil- 
ford  in  the  year  1812  : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  ^7 

[TO   ABRAHAM   S.    FOWLER.] 

NEW  YORK,  Jan.  2,  1813. 

DEAR  SIR:— 

"  No  gifts  have  I  from  India's  coasts 

The  infant  year  to  hail ; 
I  find  you  more  than  India  boasts — " 
*  *  *  *        —BURNS. 

Having  recently  had  the  honor  of  being  appointed 
Poet  Laureate  to  the  "  Ugly  Club,"  I  have  exerted  my 
influence  with  the  president  to  procure  your  admission 
as  a  member,  and  taken  upon  myself  to  assert,  in  the 
sincerity  of  friendship,  that  you  are  highly  worthy  of 
that  exalted  character.  His  Ugliness  has  been  gracious 
ly  pleased  to  grant  my 'request,  and  I  trust  that  during 
your  next  visit  to  this  city,  which  I  confidently  hope 
will  not  be  long  deferred,  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of 
introducing  you  in  propria  persona  to  the  club  ;  and, 
unless  the  two  years  which  have  elapsed  since  we  parted, 
have  occasioned  a  most  astonishing  alteration  in  your 
appearance,  I  flatter  myself  that  you  will  be  welcomed 
as  a  very  promising  member,  and  the  high  recommen 
dation  I  have  given  you,  as  such,  confirmed.  Do  me 
the  favor  to  accept  the  enclosed  diploma,  with  the 
compliments  of  the  season,  and  believe  me  sincerely 
Your  affectionate  friend, 

FITZ-G.  HALLECK. 


IS8 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF   . 


[TO   THE   SAME.] 

UGLY  HALL,  No.  4  WALL  STREET, 
January  2,  1815. 

SIR  :  The  members  of  the  Ugly  Club,  duly  appre 
ciating  your  deformities,  have  elected  you  an  ordinary 
member  of  their  institution.  In  acquainting  you  of 
the  honor  conferred  on  your  superlative  ugliness  by 
the  club,  I  am  instructed  to  apologize  that  they  have 
not  noticed  at  an  earlier  date  your  eminent  claims  to 
admission,  and  they  humbly  trust  that  their  involun 
tary  omission  will  in  no  degree  diminish  your  opinion 
of  their  taste  and  discernment. 

If  any  doubts  should  be  entertained  of  your  quali 
fications,  permit  them  to  refer  you  to  your  mirror, 
where  you  will  perceive  that  their  selection  has  been 
judicious,  proper,  and  highly  commendable. 

I  am  directed  to  request  your  attendance  at  Ugly 
Hall,  on  the  I9th  day  of  January  inst.,  at  seven  o'clock, 
p.  M.,   precisely,   where  the    members  anticpate    the 
pleasure  of  feasting  their  eyes  on  your  ugliness. 
By  order  of  his  Ugliness. 

THOMAS  J.  DE  LANCEY, 

Secretary. 

The  treaty  of  peace  which  closed  the  second  war 
with  Great  Britain,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  signed 
at  Ghent,  December  24,  1814,  by  John  Ouincy  Adams, 
J.  A.  Bayard,  Henry  Clay,  Albert  Gallatin,  and  Jona 
than  Russell,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  but  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jjjg 

news  did  not  reach  this  country  until  more  than  a 
month  after  General  Jackson  had  won  the  famous  vic 
tory  at  New  Orleans,  for  then  steam  navigation  had  not 
brought  the  Old  and  the  New  World  within  ten  days 
of  each  other,  or  the  Atlantic  cable  within  as  many 
minutes.  Halleck  had  gone  with  one  of  his  fellow- 
clerks  to  a  concert  at  the  City  Hotel,  Saturday,  Feb 
ruary  nth.  During  the  evening  there  was  a  noise  and 
commotion  in  the  streets,  which  disturbed  the  audience 
who  were  listening  to  the  music,  when  suddenly  the 
door  of  the  concert-room  was  thrown  open,  and  several 
persons,  all  breathless  with  excitement,  rushed  in, 
waving  their  hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  shouting 
"  Peace  !  peace  !  "  There  was  no  more  music  that 
night.  The  whole  audience,  wild  with  excitement, 
speedily  vacated  the  hall  and  rushed  into  Broadway. 
What  a  scene  !  A  living  sea  of  shouting  and  rejoicing 
people.  Within  an  hour  tens  of  thousands  of  people 
of  both  sexes  and  all  ages  were  thronging  Broadway 
with  torches,  amid  the  ringing  of  bells  and  the  wild 
huzzas  of  men  made  happy  by  the  return  of  peace. 

In  the  spring  of  1815  the  poet  visited  the  city  of 
Boston  on  business,  halting  by  the  way,  on  his  return, 
for  a  few  days,  at  Guilford. 

[TO   MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  May  26,  1815. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  just  received  yours  of 
the  23d.  I  did  not  inform  you  that  I  arrived  here  at 


j6o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

the  hour  contemplated,  in  "pretty  good  health  and 
spirits,"  because  I  supposed  that  you  would  take  for 
granted  that  such  was  the  case,  and  thought  it  hardly 
worth  the  trouble  of  a  letter.  I  am,  however,  ex 
tremely  sorry  that  my  silence  has  occasioned  you  any 
inquietude,  and  beg  your  pardon. 

I  left  Guilford,  I  think,  at  half-past  two  o'clock, 
P.  M.,  reached  New  Haven  at  five,  went  to  Butler's, 
where  I  stayed  until  morning.  In  the  evening  I 
called  upon  Horace  Elliot,  where  I  spent  two  hours ; 
went  on  board  the  steamboat  at  six  next  day,  and 
arrived  here  at  four  P.  M. ;  found  all  well,  and  very 
glad  to  see  me.  Is  not  this  account  sufficiently  cir 
cumstantial  ? 

A  new  set  of  boarders  have  appeared  at  Mrs.  Bu 
chanan's  during  my  absence.  Mr.  Wood,  a  Bos- 
tonian,  a  fine,  sensible,  knowing  old  bachelor;  Mr. 
Hamilton,  a  lawyer,  and  a  son  of  the  famous  General 
Hamilton ;  Mr.  Morris,  a  midshipman  in  the  navy ; 
Mr.  Crochan,  a  dry-goods  dealer ;  and  Mr.  Blossom, 
the  partner  of  my  friend  Mr.  Davis.  Truly,  a  goodly 
company. 

Bonifer,  a  friend  of  mine  from  Bordeaux,  has  this 
day  arrived  and  brought  me  letters  from  MacCarthy. 
He  was  one  of  the  two  hundred  chevaliers  who  fought 
for  the  Duchess  D'Angouleme.  He  escaped  unhurt. 
His  brother,  a  captain  in  the  National  Guards,  and 
three  others  of  my  acquaintance,  accompanied  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  j6i 

Duchess  to  England.     I  expect  MacCarthy  in  America 
in  September  next. 

Several  new  publications  will  shortly  make  their 
appearance  here.  The  "  Lord  of  the  Isles/'  by  Walter 
Scott;  "  Roderick,  the  last  of  the  Goths,"  by  Robert 
Southey;  the  "Queen's  Wake,"  by  James  Hogg; 
"  Clan  Alpine,"  a  novel,  and  several  others.  I  shall, 
of  course,  send  them  to  you  as  soon  as  they  are  pub 
lished. 

My  friend  Mr.  Davis  has  commenced  keeping 
house  in  very  pretty  style  in  Hudson  Street.  He,  with 
his  wife,  will  be  very  glad  to  have  you  pay  a  visit  to 
New  York,  and  you  can  make  their  house  your  home. 
I  wish  you  would  calculate  on  coming  here,  say  in  Sep 
tember  next,  and  stay  a  few  weeks.  The  theatres 
will  then  have  reopened,  and  I  trust  you  will  be 
pleased  with  the  excursion.  Just  bear  it  in  mind,  will 
you  ?  You  will  find  Mrs.  Davis  a  good-humored, 
clever  sort  of  a  country  girl,  without  much  taste  or 
polish,  and  with  a  head  none  of  the  wisest. 

Business  has  increased  prodigiously  since  I  left  here, 
and  every  thing  is  in  motion.  The  contrast  between 
this  busy  scene  and  Boston  is  astonishing.  The  latter 
is  a  solitude  compared  with  it. 

Your  affectionate 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

Alluding  to  the  literature  of  the  first  fifteen  years 


!62  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of  the  present  century,  Mr.  Halleck  said  to  the  writer : 
"  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  describe  to  you  the  delight 
with  which,  at  that  period,  we  read  and  committed  to 
memory  whole  pages  of  Scott's  lyrical  romances.  I 
think  I  could  repeat  one-half  of  the  '  Lady  of  the  Lake,' 
and  quite  as  much  of  '  Marmion.'  Then  we  had  Camp 
bell's  '  Pleasures  of  Hope,'  Rogers's  '  Pleasures  of  Mem 
ory,'  Moore's  sweet  '  Melodies,'  Miss  Porter's  '  Scottish 
Chiefs'  and  '  Thaddeus  of  Warsaw,'  Hannah  More's 
*  C celebs  in  Search  of  a  Wife,'  and  Miss  Edgeworth's 
charming  novels.  A  little  later  there  appeared  '  Wa- 
verley,'  '  Guy  Mannering,'  and  'The  Antiquary,' pro 
ducing  a  widespread  enthusiasm  throughout  Great 
Britain  and  this  country,  which  has  probably  never 
been  equalled  in  the  history  of  literature.  During  the 
same  period  nothing  worth  naming  had  been  produced 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  with  the  exception  of 
Irving  and  Paulding's  'Salmagundi'  and  Knicker 
bocker's  'New  York.'  Nearly  all  the  writers  who 
gave  tone  and  power  to  American  literature  were  then 
young  and  unknown  to  fame.  The  new  era  dated 
from  1815,  for  it  was  after  that  time  that  James  and 
Maria  Brooks,  Bryant,  Cooper  and  Channing,  Dana, 
Drake,  and  Hillhouse,  entered  upon  their  literary  ca 
reers." 

James  E.  DeKay,  then  a  medical  student,  while 
spending  the  summer  of  1812  at  Guilford,  pursuing  his 
studies,  became  acquainted  with  Miss  Halleck,  who, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  163 

before  his  return  to  New  York,  gave  him  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  her  brother.  During  the  following  sea 
son  Halleck  and  Joseph  Rodman  Drake  were  introduced 
by  DeKay,  and,  from  a  little  incident  which  occurred 
while  the  two  were  on  an  excursion  down  New- York 
Bay,  soon  after  their  first  meeting,  the  two  young  men 
became  devoted  friends.  It  was  a  September  after 
noon  in  the  year  1813,  after  a  shower,  when  Halleck, 
in  the  course  of  a  conversation  on  the  delights  of 
another  world,  fancifully  remarked  that  it  would  be 
heaven  "to  lounge  upon  the  rainbow  and  read  Tom 
Campbell."  Drake  was  delighted  with  the  thought, 
and  from  that  hour  the  two  poets  maintained  a  friend 
ship  only  severed  by  death.  When  the  young  physi 
cian  was  married,  in  the  summer  of  1816,  it  was  Halleck 
who  officiated  as  groomsman ;  when  he  went  abroad 
with  his  young  wife,  it  was  to  his  brother-poet  that  he 
addressed  several  poetical  epistles  ;  when  his  daughter 
and  only  child  was  born,  she  was  christened  Halleck ; 
when  the  pulsations  of  his  gentle  heart  were  daily 
growing  feebler,  it  was  his  faithful  and  attached  friend 
"  Fitz  "  who,  with  more  than  a  brother's  love,  soothed 
his  dying  pillow ;  and  when  the  grave  had  forever 
closed  over  Drake,  and  his  friend  had  said,  as  Scott 
did  when  standing  by  the  last  resting-place  of  Johnnie 
Ballantyne,  "  There  will  be  less  sunshine  for  me  here 
after,"  it  was  Halleck  who  wrote  those  exquisitely 
beautiful  and  pathetic  lines,  so  familiar  to  all,  and 


j64  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

which  must  ever  continue  to  be  an  enduring  monument 
to  both  the  poets.  It  is  to  Drake  that  the  first  incom 
plete  paragraph  of  the  following  fragment  of  a  letter 
refers,  written,  I  presume,  in  the  summer  of  1815  :  "  *  * 
that  even  to  the  most  common  and  trifling  subjects  he 
will  give  an  interest  wholly  unexpected  and  unlocked 
for.  His  manner  of  reading  Shakespeare  is  unique, 
and  to  the  bombast  of  our  old  friend,  ancient  Pistol, 
he  will  give  a  force  beyoncF  description.  He  has  a 
taste  for  music,  and  plays  the  flute  admirably.  As  I 
owe  to  his  acquaintance  many  a  pleasant  hour,  he  has 
become  'endeared  to  me,  and  I  must  apologize  for 
dwelling  so  long  upon  a  picture,  the  details  of  which 
are  so  uninteresting  to  one  who  has  not  seen  the 
original.  These,  in  addition  to  my  old  friend  Mac- 
Carthy,  have  composed  the  little  circle  of  my  acquaint 
ance,  so  far  as  paying  visits  goes.  I  believe  I  have  not 
informed  you  of  MacCarthy's  return  to  this  country. 
He  arrived  here  some  time  in  May  last.  We  had  kept 
up  a  regular  correspondence,  and  I  therefore  expected 
him.  During  the  summer  he  was  in  ill-health,  and 
resided  at  Greenwich.  He  has  since  remained  in 
town.  Three  years  have  not  altered  him  materially. 
Such  ugly  faces  have  that  advantage  over  time,  and 
his,  as  Slawkenbergius  says  (or  rather  does  not  say)  of 
his  nose,  is  one  of  the  ugliest,  thank  Heaven,  that  ever 
fell  to  a  single  man's  lot.  A  few  more  gray  hairs  have 
woven  themselves  with  his  sandy  locks,  but  otherwise 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^5 

he  is  little  changed.  His  heart  is  still  warm  and  affec 
tionate,  and  we  were  happy  to  meet  once  more. 

"  Davis  is  most  of  the  time  at  Boston.  He  has 
recommenced  his  commercial  pursuits,  and  says  he  is 
doing  well.  His  wife  has  passed  the  last  year  in  the 
country,  with  her  father,  near  Ballston  Springs.  She 
returned  to  town  some  six  weeks  since,  and  is  boarding 
in  Fulton  Street.  Her  boy,  whose  name  is,  by  the  by, 
altered  to  Fitz-William,  is  with  her,  and  a  little  daugh 
ter  about  six  months  old,  whose  name  I  have  forgotten. 
I  have  seen  her  but  once  since  her  return,  having,  as  I 
have  before  mentioned,  done  with  visiting.  Her  sister, 
who  was  with  her  when  you  were  here,  returned  home 
the  day  after  your  departure,  and  was  married  in  a  week 
to  a  Doctor  Sanders.  I  am  told  they  have  removed  and 
are  settled  somewhere  in  the  western  part  of  the  State. 
Wilson  has  at  length  left  Mrs.  Buchanan's ;  boards 
somewhere  in  Pearl  Street,  is  unmarried,  and  always 
will  be.  Thomas  Barker  boards  with  him.  He  has 
gone  into  business  as  an  auctioneer." 

Among  the  favorite  resorts  of  the  young  poets  was 
the  residence  of  Colonel  Russell,  whose  cook  was  cele 
brated  for  her  succotash,  a  dish  of  which  Drake  and 
Halleck  were  extravagantly  fond.  It  is,  however,  ques 
tionable,  whether  the  corn  and  beans  of  which  it  was 
compounded  would  have  had  sufficient  attraction  to 
draw  them  there  so  often,  had  there  not  been  domiciled 
under  the  hospitable  roof  of  the  venerable  Colonel  cer- 


!66  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

tain  young  ladies — two  fair  Elizas — whose  charms  were 
celebrated  by  both  the  poets.  Another  of  their  haunts 
was  the  house  of  Mrs.  Peter  Stuyvesant,  with  whose 
nephew,  Egerton  Winthrop,  Drake  had  been  a  fellow- 
pupil  under  Drs.  Bruce  and  Romayne.  The  resi 
dence,  now  destroyed,  stood  in  the  neighborhood  of 
St.  Mark's  Church,  with  a  beautiful  lawn  and  gardens 
extending  to  the  East  River.  They  spent  many  happy 
hours  in  the  old  mansion,  and  often,  during  their  visits, 
would  take  fishing-tackle  and  proceed  to  the  Burnt 
Mill  Point,  near  what  is  now  Tenth  Street.  On  one 
of  these  excursions,  Drake  had  a  nibble,  when  he  gave 
such  a  sudden  jerk  that  he  lost  his  fish,  but,  singular 
to  relate,  his  hook  accidentally  caught  another  by  the 
tail.  "  There,  Fitz,"  shouted  the  elated  young  doctor, 
"  I've  caught  a  fish."  "  No,  no,  Joe,"  replied  Hal- 
leek,  "  I  should  say  that  he  caught  himself." 

In  speaking  of  the  wonderful  growth  of  the  city, 
the  poet  recently  remarked  that,  in  his  early  days, 
his  New-Year  calls  were  all,  with  a  single  excep 
tion,  made  below  Canal  Street,  "  now  I  suppose  you, 
young  gentlemen,  would  decline  visiting  any  one  who 
did  not  reside  above  Bleecker."  The  exceptional  call 
was  made  on  Mrs.  Stuyvesant,  and,  said  Mr.  Halleck, 
"her  residence  was  considered  so  very  remote  that  we 
always  took  a  carriage  to  go  there.  She  lived  a  few 
blocks  south  of  the  present  square  which  bears  her 
name."  Once,  upon  entering  the  spacious  old  man- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ify 

sion,  Mrs.  Stuyvesant  said  to  Mr.  Halleck,  "  My  heart 
is  broken."  "Who  is  the  base  deceiver  ?"  he  asked. 
"  Ah  !  "  said  the  disconsolate  widow,  "  it's  not  that, 
but  the  authorities  are  about  to  open  a  street  through 
my  garden  !  "  That  street  is  First  Avenue,  and,  since 
the  poet's  death,  the  famous  pear-tree  which  stood  on. 
the  corner  of  Thirteenth  Street,  and  which  was  the  last 
vestige  of  Mrs.  Stuyve"sant's  garden,  as  well  as  one  of 
the  landmarks  of  old  New  York,  has  been  swept  away. 
Another  resort  with  the  poets  was  the  spacious 
country-house  of  Henry  Eckibrd,  a  distinguished  ship 
builder,  who  resided  in  what  was  then  known  as  Love 
Lane,  several  miles  from  the  city.  It  is  now  in  the 
very  centre  of  New  York.  His  fine  residence,  the 
approach  to  which  was  by  a  beautifully-shaded  avenue, 
called  Love  Lane,  stood  near  what  is  at  present  known 
as  Twenty-first  Street,  between  the  Sixth  and  Seventh 
Avenues.  Dr.  DeKay  was  also  a  frequent  visitor,  and 
the  quartette  was  completed  by  Charles  P.  Clinch, 
then  confidential  secretary  to  Mr.  Eckford.  Many 
jovial  evenings  were  spent  by  these  young  gentlemen 
under  the  roof  of  the  eminent  Scotch  ship-builder,  and 
two  of  the  number  became  his  sons-in-law.  Another 
favorite  haunt  with  Halleck  and  Drake  was  Hunt's 
Point,  on  Long  Island  Sound.  There  was  always 
great  joy  over  Halleck's  arrival.  "  We  were  always 
delighted  to  see  Mr.  Halleck  at  Hunt's  Point,  as  he 
would  remain  and  entertain  us,  while  Drake  would  be 


j68  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

off  in  an  old  coat  with  his  fishing-tackle,"  said  one  of 
the  ladies  who  then  resided  there,  to  the  writer.  She 
also  added  that  "  Drake  used  to  sing  to  us,  and  Hal- 
leek  would  delight  us  with  his  poetical  recitations  and 
amusing  anecdotes."  One  of  the  city  frolics  in  which 
the  literary  partners  sometimes  indulged  in  those  happy 
"  de'il  ma'  care  days  "  was  to  visit  houses  which  were 
advertised  to  rent,  for  the  purpose,  as  one  of  the  poets 
said,  "  of  getting  a  glimpse  of  the  ladies  in  dishabille 
and  to  see  the  pretty  servant-girls." 

Drake's  poem  of  "  The  Culprit  Fay,"  it  has  always 
been  said,  was  written  during  the  summer  of  1819. 
This  statement  has  been  made  by  Willis,  Poe,  Gris- 
wold,  Duyckinck,1  and  many  other  writers.  The  latter 
says  :  <(  (  The  Culprit  Fay '  arose  out  of  a  conversation 
in  the  summer  of  1819,  in  which  Drake,  DeKay, 
Cooper,  the  novelist,  and  Halleck,  were  speaking  of 
the  Scottish  streams  and  their  adaptation  to  the  uses 
of  poetry  by  their  numerous  romantic  associations. 
Cooper  and  Halleck  maintained  that  our  own  rivers 
furnished  no  such  capabilities,  when  Drake,  as  usual, 
took  the  opposite  side  of  the  argument,  and,  to  make 
his  position  good,  produced  in  three  days  '  The  Cul 
prit  Fay.'  The  scene  is  laid  in  the  Highlands  of  the 
Hudson,  but  it  is  noticeable  that  the  chief  associations 
conjured  up  relate  to  the  salt  water,  the  poet  drawing 
his  inspiration  from  his  familiar  haunt  on  the  Sound  at 

1  "  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature,"  vol.  ii. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^9 

Hunt's  Point."1  This  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
exquisite  poem  on  which  Drake's  reputation  as  a  poet 
chiefly  rests  is  correct,  except  in  the  date  assigned  for 
the  meeting  of  the  four  friends  and  trie  production  of 
"  The  Culprit  Fay."  On  a  manuscript  copy  of  the 
poem  now  before  us,  in  Halleck's  handwriting,  is  the 
indorsement  herewith  appended  :  "  The  following 
lines  were  written  by  Joseph  Rodman  Drake  in  New 
York,  North  America,  August,  1816,  and  copied  from 
the  author's  manuscript  in  January,  1817,  by  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck." 

During  the  winter  of  i8i6-'i7,  the  poet  made  a 
visit  of  pleasure  as  far  south  as  Virginia,  stopping  at 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington,  Mount  Vernon, 
and  Alexandria.  The  following  incomplete  letter, 
for  it  has  neither  beginning  nor  end,  neither  a  date  nor 
an  address,  describing  his  Southern  tour,  was,  I  pre 
sume,  written  during  the  winter  of  i8i6-'i7,  and  sent 
to  some  member  of  the  family,  probably  to  his  mother  : 

[TO   MRS.    ISRAEL  HALLECK.] 

*  *  *  *  to  employ  my  leisure  moments  in 
completing  my  knowledge  of  the  French  language,  of 
which  I  possessed  what  is  termed  a  smattering  before, 
Our  friend  DeKay,  together  with  two  or  three  others 

1  In  a  manuscript  copy  of  "  The  Culprit  Fay,"  the  author  left  a  note 
ingeniously  removing  the  difficulty ;  "  The  reader  will  find  some  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  salt  water  a  little  farther  up  the  Hudson  than  they 
usually  travel,  but  not  too  far  for  the  purposes  of  poetry," 

8 


IJQ  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of  my  intimate  acquaintances,  were  boarding  in  a 
French  house.  I  left  Mrs.  Buchanan's,  regardless  of 
her  tears  (which  were  not  a  few),  and  joined  DeKay  at 
Madame  Berault's,  a  very  amiable  family,  with  whom  I 
remained  till  February  last. 

In  November,  having  some  business  in  Philadel 
phia,  and  actuated  by  a  desire  to  see  (or  rather  to  say 
that  I  had  seen)  some  of  the  Southern  cities,  I  trav 
elled  as  far  as  Alexandria,  in  Virginia,  stopping  some 
days  at  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington,  etc.,  on 
the  way.  Neither  of  these  cities  is,  in  my  estimation, 
equal  to  New  York,  for  a  residence.  Baltimore  resem 
bles  it  the  most.  Philadelphia  has  attractions  for  a 
man  of  literature  superior  to  any  other  place  in  Amer 
ica,  which,  connected  with  the  peculiar  regularity  and 
"  steady  habits "  (if  I  maybe  allowed  the  expression) 
of  its  inhabitants,  would,  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  ren 
der  it  more  pleasing  upon  long  acquaintance.  This 
opinion  is  confirmed  by  the  partiality  which  its  natives 
feel  for  it,  which  approaches  nearly  to  idolatry,  and  is 
too  apt  to  render  them  very  disagreeable  companions, 
their  conversation  and  ideas  being  local  and  con 
tracted.  Washington  is  a  mere  desert.  Well  might 
Anacreon  Moore  ridicule  its  "  Goose  Creek,"  its 
swamps  and  marshes.  Since  he  visited  it  some  slight 
improvement  has  been  made,  but  the  present  genera 
tion  and  its  children's  children  will  rest  quiet  in  their 
graves  or  sleep  in  "  dull  cold  marble  "  before  it  will 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  iji 

present  an  appearance  worthy  of  its  illustrious  founder. 
Its  natural  situation  is,  however,  admirable.  Its  site 
is  very  commanding,  and  had  it  the  aid  of  commerce, 
without  which  nothing  can  flourish  (I  might  almost  say 
exist)  in  this  country,  its  choice  as  the  capital  of  a  great 
empire  would  have  been  highly  judicious.  I  paused 
for  some  time  on  the  field  of  Bladensburg,  rendered 
memorable  by  the  battle  which  decided  the  fate  of 
Washington,  and  added  one  to  the  tears  of  indigna 
tion  and  regret  which  every  American  must  drop  upon 
that  spot.  Never  was  there  a  better  place  for  defence 
marked  out  by  the  finger  of  Nature  for  a  warrior's 
choice,  and  never  was  there  a  field  more  shamefully 
abandoned.  The  English  fought  like  bloodhounds. 
They  had  to  march  every  step  of  the  way  up-hill,  and, 
had  any  thing  like  a  decent  resistance  been  made  to 
their  progress,  the  bloody  victory  of  St.  Sebastian's 
would  have  found  its  rival  in  historic  annals.  The 
roadside  is  dotted  with  the  graves  of  their  dead ;  over 
that  of  a  colonel  who  fell  in  the  battle,  a  small  sprig 
of  mullet  had  grown,  as  if  Nature  meant  to  mark  it  as 
distinct  from  the  common  dust  of  the  forgotten  brave. 
Caps,  shreds  of  cloth,  etc.,  and  now  and  then  an  arm 
or  a  leg,  scattered  on  the  field,  were  still  discernible 
when  I  passed.  The  capitol  and  President's  house 
were  in  ruins.  They  had  commenced  repairing  them, 
but  it  must  take  many  years  to  reinstate  them  in  their 
former  splendor.  They  were  very  fine  buildings,  the 


172 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


President's  house  certainly  the  finest  in  America.  His 
Excellency  was  then  in  town.  He  was  ill,  and  I  did 
not  see  him.  His  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Cutts,  with 
whom  I  was  acquainted,  offered  to  introduce  me,  but,  as 
my  stay  was  very  short,  I  declined  his  offer.  I  saw  Mrs. 
Madison  at  the  theatre,  where  a  number  of  gentlemen 
amateurs  were  murdering  a  play  or  two.  She  is  a  very 
handsome,  dignified-looking  personage,  and  I  under 
stand  presides  at  her  levee  in  a  style  not  excelled  by 
European  courts.  She  has  much  more  suavity  of 
manner  and  of  the  grace  and  demeanor  of  polished 
society  than  her  husband.  I  also  saw  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Gallatin,  and  sundry  other  "  great  folks,"  whose  sole 
interest  was  derived  from  their  temporary  ascendency 
in  the  concerns  of  our  famous  Republic,  and  who  will 
probably  retire  in  a  few  years  to  the  otium  cum  digni- 
tate  of  their  original  state  of  obscurity,  and  die  "  un 
noticed  and  unknown."  I  visited  'Mount  Vernon,  of 
course,  though  obliged  to  go  thirty-two  miles  out  of 
my  way  to  do  so.  'Tis  a  pilgrimage  which,  as  an 
American,  I  paid  with  feelings  of  devotion  and  of  rev 
erence  as  strong,  as  powerful,  and  enthusiastic,  as 
ever  warmed  the  heart  of  a  pious  pilgrim  on  his  jour 
ney  to  the  Holy  Land  or 

"  To  St.  Fillan's  blessed  well, 
Whose  spring  can  frenzied  dreams  dispel, 
And  the  crazed  brain  restore." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^3 

It  is  a  very  pleasant,  indeed  a  charming,  situation  on 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  and,  distinct  from  its  hal 
lowed  and  holy  interest  as  the  "  depositaire"  of  the 
ashes  of  the  good  and  brave,  would  command  attention 
for  its  retired  and  placid  beauties.  I  was  accompanied 
by  a  young  officer  who  had  served  during  all  the  late 
war  upon  the  lines,  and  who  was  fast  sinking  to  the 
tomb  from  a  consumption,  the  result  of  long  marches 
and  "  tentless  bivouacs."  I  became  acquainted  with 
him  at  Washington,  where  he  was  settling  his  accounts 
with  the  War  Office.  He  was  an  enthusiast,  and  a 
victim  of  enthusiasm.  I  have  not  since  heard  of  him. 
We  were  accosted  at  the  gate  by  an  old  negro-servant 
of  the  General's,  who  told  me  he  had  accompanied 
him  to  the  Braddock  war  (as  he  termed  it).  Bushrod 
Washington,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Circuit  Court 
of  the  United  States,  occupies  the  mansion  at  present. 
He  was  then  at  Philadelphia  with  his  family,  and  none 
but  the  servants  were  at  home.  One  of  them  very 
obligingly  showed  us  "  the  lions,"  such  as  are  prob 
ably  shown  to  all  strangers.  We  passed  through  every 
apartment.  Many  portraits  of  the  General  are  hung 
up  in  the  rooms.  One  of  them,  a  miniature,  was  said 
to  be  the  best  likeness.  'Tis  very  little  different  from 
the  prints  of  him  which  are  to  be  seen  in  almost  every 
house  in  the  country.  They  showed  us  the  key  of  the 
Bastile,  which  La  Fayette  had  sent  him  from  France 
soon  after  the  destruction  of  that  building  in  1789. 


I74  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

'Tis  a  large,  massy  iron  key,  and  enclosed  in  a  glass 
case.  The  tomb  of  Washington,  or  rather  his  family- 
vault,  is  very  romantically  situated.  Three  large 
oak-trees  overshadow  it,  and  a  grove  of  pines  shoots 
up  beneath  them.  I  robbed  the  vault  of  part  of  the 
shells  which  compose  the  plaster  and  the  pines  of 
some  small  sprigs,  which  I  preserve  as  "  memen 
toes." 

On  my  return  from  Baltimore  to  Philadelphia,  I 
took  the  upper  road,  by  the  way  of  York  and  Lancas 
ter.  The  distance  is  greater  than  by  the  usual  route, 
but  I  was  desirous  to  view  the  country  in  that  quarter, 
which  I  had  heard  much  extolled  for  its  fertility  and 
beauty,  nor  was  I  disappointed.  If  there  ever  was  a 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  that  must  have 
been  the  spot.  The  inhabitants,  their  houses,  in  short, 
every  thing  around,  denote  abundance.  Every  inch 
of  ground  is  capable  of  cultivation,  and  all  is  a  con 
tinued  garden.  'Tis  the  paradise  of  America.  On  the 
banks  of  the  Susquehanna  are  some  of  the  loveliest 
views  that  the  eye  of  the  imagination  ever  fancied. 
One,  in  particular,  from  a  bridge  at  a  town  called 
Columbia,  might  defy  the  pencil  of  magic  to  equal.  In 
my  "  mind's  eye  "  I  still  see  it  in  all  its  loveliness,  nor, 
till  my  last  sigh,  will  the  impression  of  the  moment  I 
gazed  upon  it  be  erased  from  my  memory.  It  is  a 
fair  specimen  of  the  vale  of  Wyoming,  rendered  sacred 
by  the  muse  of  Campbell : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jyij 

"  The- loveliest  land  of  all 
That  see  the  Atlantic  wave  their  morn  restore." 

I  remained  two  or  three  days  in  Philadelphia,  and  from 
thence  returned  to  New  York. 

Finding  that  there  were  too  many  Americans  at 
Madame  Berault's,  and  that  my  wish  of  learning  the 
French  language  was  in  vain  while  I  continued  there, 
I  left  her  house  on  the  ist  of  February,  and  went  to 
Mons.  Villagrand's,  in  Chambers  Street,  where  I  still 
reside.  Nothing  but  French  is  spoken  here,  and  I 
have  already  nearly  completed  my  knowledge  of  it.  I 
now  speak  it  with  facility,  and  have  been  often  taken, 
or  rather  mistaken,  for  a  Frenchman  by  Frenchmen 
themselves.  The  family  consists  of  the  husband  and 
wife,  two  sons,  and  a  daughter.  The  wife  and  daugh 
ter  are  very  agreeable,  and  both  rather  pretty.  The 
former  is  somewhere  from  thirty  to  one  hundred.  One 
can  never  distinguish  between  youth  and  old  age  in  a 
Frenchwoman.  The  dress  of  mother  and  daughter 
is  alike,  even  to  the  roses  on  their  hats  and  the  morn 
ing  paper-curls  for  their  hair.  The  same  amusements 
is  common  to  each,  each  moves  in  the  same  social 
circle,  and  one  would  rather  believe  them  playmates 
and  companions  than  mother  and  child.  I  shall  prob 
ably  remain  with  them  for  some  years,  until  circum 
stances  may  render  some  other  residence  necessary. 

In   June,  as  I  then  wrote  you,   I  was  obliged,  in 


!76  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

order  to  secure  a  debt  due  us  in  North  Carolina, 
to  make  a  voyage  to  that  State.  'Twas  an  irksome 
business,  nor  is  there  any  thing  in  that  part  of  the 
country  in  the  smallest  degree  connected  with  ideas  of 
gratification  or  of  pleasure.  I  had  long  passages  go 
ing  and  coming.  The  packets  in  that  trade  are  not 
very  commodious,  and  I  was  every  thing  but  comfort 
able  on  board  of  them.  I  however,  as  usual,  endeav 
ored  to  make  the  best  of  my  situation,  and  amused 
myself  by  reading,  musing,  etc.,  as  well  as  possible. 
We  had  one  or  two  what  the  sailors  termed  violent 
storms  on  the  passage,  accompanied  with  not  a  little 
thunder  and  lightning,  but  either  my  dread  of  storms 
had  previously  given  me  a  worse  idea  of  them  than 
they  merited,  or  my  mind  was  steeled  or  insensible 
to  danger,  for  I  felt  no  sensations  of  terror  in  the 
storms  we  encountered.  My  feelings  were  rather  those 
of  pleasure — that  pleasure  derived  from  the  view  of 
scenes  of  sublimity  and  grandeur,  which  the  attendance 
of  danger  serves  but  to  heighten.  I  watched  the 
mountain-wave  as  it  rolled  far  above  the  masts  and 
burst  in  air.  I  listened  to  the  mingled  conflict  of 
winds  and  waters,  and  the  creaking  of  the  masts  at  the 
rush  of  the  billow.  I  marked  the  sheets  of  volleyed 
lightning  that  gleamed  and  played  around  me  in 
almost  a  constant  glare  till  my  eyes  were  blinded  with 
the  gaze,  and  owned  a  feeling,  indistinct  and  undefin- 
able,  but  far  removed  from  terror  or  dismay. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ijj 

We  reached  Newbern;  my  port  of  destination,  in 
twelve  days.  It  is  situated  seventy  or  eighty  miles  up 
a  river,  edged  on  each  side  with  pine-woods,  which 
give  an  air  of  rather  placid  beauty  to  the  prospect  as 
one  sails  along  it.  But  all  is  level  and  unvaried.  The 
waters  are  muddy  and  discolored.  Alligators,  ser 
pents,  "gorgons,  hyenas,  and  chimeras  dire"  people 
the  shore,  and  the  inhabitants  themselves  appear  to  be 
Nature's  outcasts.  One  sees  "  no  trace  of  her  but  the 
form."  They  are  all  of  a  sallow,  sickly  complexion, 
with  emaciated  bodies  and  feeble  minds.  Newbern  is 
about  as  large  as  New  Haven,  but  not  in  a  flourishing 
state.  Two-thirds  of  its  residents,  I  should  sup 
pose,  were  negroes,  and  many  of  the  remainder  are 
Yankees,  who  leave  their  own  States  in  ignorance  of 
every  thing,  and  who  learn  nothing  in  their  adopted 
ones  but  additional  ideas  of  importance,  and  habits  of 
debauchery  and  vice.  At  home,  a  Connecticut  man 
goes  according  to  law  and  custom.  Law  and  custom 
are  favorable  in  his  native  State  to  morality  and  virtue. 
When  he  leaves  it,  and  goes  where  law  of  that  nature 
is  unknown,  and  where  custom  sanctions  every  thing 
immoral  and  degrading,  the  original  formation  of  his 
mind  becomes  developed,  and  he  finds  that  it  was  not 
his  own  good  sense  of  propriety  of  conduct,  or  strength 
of  mind,  that  made  him  behave  himself  decently  at 
home,  but  solely  a  dread  of  disobeying  the  laws 
and  incurring  the  censure  of  his  neighbors,  and  be- 
8* 


jyg  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

comes  in  a  short  time  the  most  profligate  of  wretches. 
The  better  sort  of  people  in  North  Carolina,  though 
dissipated  and  debauched,  have  been  bred  to  it,  as  it 
were,  and  mingle  in  all  things  the  address  and  de 
meanor  of  gentlemen,  which  robs  vice  of  half  its  gross- 
ness  and  half  its  injury;  but  the  Yankees  there  are 
entirely  dispossessed  of  such  qualifications,  and  their 
manners  and  conduct  are  most  disgusting  to  a  stranger. 
I  avoided  them,  of  course.  The  natives  one  can  bear 
with.  They  are  frank  and  open,  would  be  liberal,  per 
haps,  if  they  had  any  thing  to  give,  are  conversable 
and  good-humored.  I  stayed  in  Newbern  two  days.  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  pomegranate-trees  in 
blossom,  and  of  eating  figs  from  the  trees.  The 
pomegranate  is  a  small  bush,  resembling  the  lilac- 
bush.  Its  blossoms  are  a  bright  and  beautiful  red.  Its 
fruit  in  appearance  resembles  a  large  pear;  its  colors 
are  a  mixture  of  scarlet  and  gold.  The  fig-tree  resem 
bles  much  a  quince-tree.  Its  leaves  are  large,  though 
I  should  imagine  they  had  lost  some  of  their  qualities 
since  the  days  of  our  friends  Adam  and  Eve,  for  they 
are  too  brittle  to  sew  together.  Most  of  the  fruits 
which  are  found  on  the  Grecian  islands  and  shores 
are  natural  to  the  soil  of  Carolina,  and  require  little 
cultivation.  I  hired  a  stick-chair  (as  they  term  them 
here)  to  carry  me  to  a  village  called  Washington,  a 
distance  of  forty  miles,  with  a  boy  to  drive  me,  whose 
yellow  visage  and  sunk  lack-lustre  eyes  reminded  me 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ijg 

of  the  "Witch  of  Endor."  Our  way  lay  through  a 
wood.  A  narrow  road  had  been  cut,  broad  enough  to 
admit  one  vehicle  to  pass.  All  the  rest  was  as  the 
deluge  left  it  five  thousand  years  ago.  We  stopped  at 
every  house  we  saw  on  the  road.  By  the  by,  there 
were  but  three.  The  dinner  which  I  got  at  one  of 
them  was  a  fair  sample  of  their  manner  of  living. 
They  gave  me  hoe-cakes  (cakes  made  of  Indian  meal 
and  baked  on  a  board  provided  for  the  purpose), 
smoking  hot,  and  some  cold  ham  and  boiled  callots,  a 
species  of  cabbage,  which  my  boy  said  he  "  liked 
mightily  "  (this  is  one  of  the  country  phrases),  but  in 
which  I  differed  with  him  most  widely.  By  way  of  a 
dessert,  they  give  some  apple-pie  and  a  glass  of  milk. 
This,  with  a  quantity  of  whiskey,  composes  the  dinner. 
There  are  generally  from  two  to  twenty  half-naked  ne 
groes  standing  behind  you  and  around  the  table,  each 
armed  with  a  long  brush  of  peacock-feathers,  with 
which  they  keep  off  the  flies,  which  otherwise  would  eat 
up  your  dinner  and  you  too  in  a  short  time.  Wash 
ington  is  a  small  village,  but  very  pleasant,  at  least  the 
most  so  of  any  I  met  with  in  my  absence.  Here  I  re 
mained  a  week.  I  visited  several  other  little  towns 
around  there  not  worth  naming,  and,  having  com 
pleted  my  affairs,  though  by  no  means  to  my  satisfac 
tion,  I  left  it  without  a  sigh  or  tear  on  the  morning  of 
the  4th  of  July.  I  had  received  a  very  polite  invitation 
from  a  committee  of  the  whole  town  to  honor  them 


jgo  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

with  my  presence  at  the  dinner  which  they  were  going 
to  swallow  in  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  in  commemo 
ration  of  their  country's  birth  (by  the  by,  the  com 
mittee,  composed  of  three,  were  all  Irishmen),  but  I 
was  so  anxious  to  leave  their  wretched  village,  that  I 
preferred  a  dinner  of  ham  and  hoe-cake,  to  all  their 
good  cheer,  and  embarked  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
morning  on  board  of  a  little  sail-boat  with  two  negroes, 
and  sailed  down  the  river,  in  pursuit  of  a  vessel  bound 
to  New  York,  having  understood  that  such  were  gen 
erally  found  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  After  a  tedious 
passage  of  sixty  miles,  we  arrived  at  twelve  o'clock  at 
night  at  our  place  of  destination,  and  I  got  on  board 
of  a  schooner  bound  home.  The  vessel  was  loaded 
and  ready  for  sea,  but  we  were  detained  for  two  days 
by  contrary  winds,  during  which  time  the  captain  and 
myself  (I  was  the  only  passenger)  went  on  shore  and 
rambled  among  the  woods  in  quest  of  adventures. 
Houses  are  scattered  at  about  two  miles  from  each 
other  in  the  wilderness.  A  little  spot  of  ground  Vound 
them  is,  as  it  were,  dug  out  of  the  waste,  and  planted 
with  corn,  etc.,  from  which  the  natives  derive  their 
subsistence.  Their  houses  are  all  of  one  story ;  they 
have  no  glass  windows.  In  pleasant  weather  they 
throw  open  the  window-shutters.  When  it  rains  or  is 
cold  they  shut  them.  Some  of  the  chimneys  are  at 
the  end  of  the  house,  as  is  usual  with  civilized  people, 
others  are  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and  the  smoke 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jgl 

goes  out  "through  a  hole  in  the  roof,"  as  in  the  Irish 
cottages.  These  half-savages  stared  at  us  as  though 
they  seldom  had  an  opportunity  of  looking  at  human 
beings.  They  were,  however,  kind  and  hospitable. 
The  women,  particularly,  seemed  much  pleased  with 
us,  and  'tis  a  truth  that  a  stranger  always  finds  a  more 
welcome  reception  from  the  women  than  the  men,  par 
ticularly  if  he  happens  to  be  young  and  good-looking, 
begging  your  sex's  pardon.  Two  of  the  young  ladies 
were  anxious  to  go  down  to  Ocracoke,  the  island  at 
the  mouth  of  the  bay.  They  wanted  to  look  at  the  sea 
and  visit  some  friends  who  resided  near  it.  We  accord 
ingly  gave  them  a  passage  on  board,  but  the  poor  girls 
were  so  cruelly  sea-sick  that  they  soon  wished  them 
selves  back  again  in  their  native  pine-forests. 

On  the  third  morning  after  becoming  one  of  the 
inmates  of  the  schooner's  cabin  we  left  Ehongapongo 
River,  as  it  is  called,  and,  sailing  down  Pamlico  Sound, 
reached  Ocracoke  Bar  in  two  days.  Here  we  landed 
our  two  ladies,  and  accompanied  them  to  the  house  of 
their  friend,  situated  in  the  depth  of  a  sandy  forest, 
surrounded  with  withered  shrubs  and  blasted  trees,  the 
sea-air  being  so  piercing  as  to  almost  destroy  all  vege 
tation  on  that  island.  Its  inhabitants,  to  the  number 
of  two  or  three  hundred  families,  are  mostly  pilots, 
who  earn  a  hard  and  precarious  subsistence  by  piloting 
vessels  over  the  shoals  with  which  the  coast  is  sur 
rounded.  'Tis  a  horrible  shore.  In  walking  round  it 


1 82  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

for  about  a  mile,  I  counted  above  twenty  wrecks  of 
ships,  all  which  had  fallen  victims  to  the  "  war  of  ele 
ments  "  within  a  short  time.  Here,  as  ill-luck  would 
have  it,  we  were  detained  for  seven  days  by  contrary 
winds.  Most  of  this  tedious  interval  I  passed  on  board. 
We  occasionally  rowed  on  shore,  but  the  country  is  so 
dreary  and  the  natives  such  a  crew  of  half-starved 
savages,  that  we  were  glad  to  screen  ourselves  from 
the  view  of  squalid  wretchedness  within  our  little  cabin. 
That,  by  the  by,  was  not  a  very  comfortable  place. 
Two  of  the  men  were  sick  with  the  fever  which  in  the 
summer  months  prevails  in  that  climate,  and  seven  of 
us  were  huddled  in  a  small  place  not  ten  feet  square. 
Well  might  Doctor  Johnson  describe  a  ship  as  "a 
prison,  with  a  chance  of  being  drowned." 

At  length  the  wind  became  favorable,  and  I  bade 
that  accursed  harbor  adieu  with  an  huzza  of  gladness. 
We  had  a  long  and  rather  disagreeable  passage  home. 
Our  long  and  unexpected  detention  at  Ocracoke  had 
consumed  nearly  all  our  provisions,  and  for  the  last 
three  days  we  had  nothing  to  eat  but  a  little  very  bad 
bread,  and  a  dolphin  which  we  were  so  lucky  as  to 
take.  The  deck  was  covered  with  lumber,  and  there 
was  not  a  place  on  it  for  me  to  walk  larger  than  a 
chess-board.  This,  connected  with  the  want  of  pro 
visions,  the  poor  sick  fellows  on  board,  no  books,  no 
companions,  rendered  it,  you  may  well  suppose,  a  fit 
habitation  for  the  "blue  devils."  They  paid  me  their 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jgg 

compliments  now  and  then.  They  pointed  to  my  then 
situation,  to  the  uncheering  prospects  which  awaited 
me  when  I  should  get  on  shore,  to  the  gloom  which 
hung  over  the  future.  I  could  only  chase  them  away 
by  calling  to  my  aid  the  treasures  of  my  memory ;  by 
repeating  the  thousand  and  one  poems  *  * 

In  the  following  letter  the  poet  refers  to  his  manu 
script  of  "  The  Culprit  Fay,"  already  alluded  to,  and 
also  to  its  gifted  author,  Dr.  Drake  : 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Jan.  29,  1817. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  I  send  you  herewith  two  manu 
script  poems,  written  by  a  friend  of  mine,  Mr.  Drake, 
whose  name,  I  believe,  I  once  mentioned  to  you.  He 
is  a  young  physician,  about  twenty.  "The  Culprit 
Fay  "  was  written,  begun,  and  finished  in  three  days. 
The  copy  you  have  is  from  the  original,  without  the 
least  alteration.  It  is  certainly  the  best  thing  of  the 
kind  in  the  English  language,  and  is  more  strikingly 
original  than  I  had  supposed  it  possible  for  a  modern 
poem  to  be.  The  other  "  Lines  "  were  written  to  a 
lady,  after  an  evening's  ramble  near  a  river,  on  whose 
opposite  bank  a  band  of  music  was  playing.  'Tis  a 
hackneyed  subject,  but  he  has  given  it  beauty  and 
novelty.  I  will  send  you  in  a  short  time  some-  other 
pieces  equally  good.  You  will,  of  course,  show  these  to 
George  Foote  and  William  Todd.  The  poem  was  writ- 


j84  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

ten  in  August  last,  since  which  its  author  has  married, 
and,  as  his  wife's  father  is  rich,  I  imagine  he  will  write 
no  more.  He  was  poor,  as  poets,  of  course,  always 
are,  and  offered  himself  a  sacrifice  at  the  shrine  of 
Hymen  to  shun  the  "  pains  and  penalties  "  of  poverty. 
I  officiated  as  groomsman,  though  much  against  my 
will.  His  wife  is  good-natured,  and  loves  him  to  dis 
traction.  He  is,  perhaps,  the  handsomest  man  in 
New  York — a  face  like  an  angel,  a  form  like  an  Apollo, 
and,  as  I  well  knew  that  his  person  was  the  true  index 
of  his  mind,  I  felt  myself  during  the  ceremony  as  com 
mitting  a  crime  in  aiding  and  assisting  in  such  a  sacri 
fice. 

On  the  subject  of  visiting  you,  I  can  add  nothing 
further.  I  shall  certainly  endeavor  to  do  it  if  J.  B. 
goes  to  Washington,  which  is  still  uncertain.  Misfor 
tune  has  made  me  a  philosopher,  and  if  disappointed 
in  this,  as  I  have  been  in  almost  every  anticipation  of 
my  life,  I  shall  submit  without  a  murmur. 

What  has  become  of  George  A.  Elliot  ?  I  have 
heard  nothing  of  him  since  ^  he  left  here  for  Phila 
delphia. 

Yours  affectionately, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

In  addition  to  the  song  contained  in  the  following 
letter,  Mr.  Halleck  wrote  for  Miss  Eliza  McCall  the 
beautiful  lines  beginning,  "The  world  is  bright  before 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  185 

thee."  Drake  also  wrote  two  songs  for  the  same  young 
lady,  whom  both  the  young  poets  greatly  admired. 
Halleck  introduces  her,  and  also  Mrs.  Drake,  in  one  of 
the  "  Croakers."  The  songs  are  included  in  Drake's 
poems,  where  they  appear  with  the  titles  "  TQ  a  lady, 
on  hearing  her  sing  '  Cushlamachree,'  "  and  "To  a 
lady  with  a  withered  violet :  " 

Though  Fate  upon  this  faded  flower 

His  withering  hand  has  laid, 
Its  odored  breath  defies  his  power, 

Its  sweets  are  undecayed. 

And  thus,  although  thy  warbled  strains 

No  longer  wildly  thrill, 
The  memory  of  the  song  remains, 

Its  song  is  with  me  still. 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  July  14,  1817. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  It  was  not  until  Saturday  that 
I  received  your  letter  of  the  28th  ult.  When  you  write 
me  by  a  private  conveyance,  please  direct  F.  G.  Hal 
leck,  29  Wall  Street ;  when  you  write  by  mail,  merely 
F.  G.  Halleck  is  sufficient:  *  *  *  You  had 
better,  I  think,  keep  the  house  and  your  present  estab 
lishment  ;  making  yourselves  as  comfortable  as  pos 
sible.  You  may  rely  on  me,  while  I  have  life  and 
health— and  perhaps  a  prize  in  a  lottery,  or  some  other 
equally  probable  event,  may  bring  us  golden  days  ere 


1 86  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

long.  At  any  rate,  'tis  the  part  of  wisdom  to  be  as 
happy  as  we  can.  This  is  an  excellent  precept,  but 
difficult  to  follow. 

I  wrote  a  few  lines  to  George  Elliot  the  other  day, 
just  to  keep  up  our  acquaintance.  I  suppose  he  will- 
answer  me.  I  am  pleased  to  hear  that  Charles  is  a 
papa.  I  think  the  marriage  a  very  proper  one,  so  far 
as  I  recollect  of  the  lady ;  though  I  understand  that 
the  aristocratic  blood  of  the  family  felt  itself  much  con 
taminated  by  the  connection  at  the  moment.  I  trust 
all  has  been  amicably  settled  ere  this. 

A  new  poem  by  Thomas  Moore  comes  out  next 
week.  I  wish  some  Guilforder  would  call  on  me  and 
be  willing  to  take  a  bundle  of  books  to  you  now  and 
then.  I  am  so  confined  to  the  bank  that  I  cannot  keep 
the  run  of  the  Guilford  vessels,  otherwise,  I  would  send 
you  occasionally  the  new  publications. 

I  annex  some  lines  I  wrote  one  Sunday  morning, 
lately.  They  were  written  for  a  Miss  McCall,  who 
sings,  as  the  phrase  is,  divinely,  in  order  to  go  to  the 
tune  of  "  Jessie  of  Dunblane,"  the  original  words  of 
which  are  miserable. 

Yours  affectionately, 

GREENE. 

I  turned  a  last  look  on  my  dear  native  mountain, 

When  the  dim  blush  of  sunset  grew  faint  on  the  sky ; 

All  was  still — save  the  music  that  leaped  from  the  fountain, 
And  the  wave  of  the  wood  to  the  summer  wind's  sigh. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  187 

Far  around  the  gray  mist  of  the  twilight  was  stealing, 
And  the  tints  of  the  landscape  had  faded  in  blue, 

Ere  my  pale  lip  could  murmur  the  accents  of  feeling, 
As  it  bade  the  loved  scenes  of  my  childhood  adieu  ! 

Oh  !  mock  not  that  pang — for  my  heart  was  retracing 

Vast  visions  of  happiness  sparkling  and  dear  ! 
My  hand  was  still  warm  from  a  mother's  embracing, 

My  cheek  was  still  wet  with  a  fond  sister's  tear ; 
Like  the  infant's  first  sleep  on  the  lap  of  its  mother, 

Were  the  days  of  my  boyhood — those  days  now  no  more  ! 
And  my  bosom's  deep  throb  I  had  struggled  to  smother 

Was  that  infant's  wild  cry  when  its  first  sleep  is  o'er  ! 

Years  have  gone  by,  and  remembrance  now  covers 

With  the  tinge  of  the  moonbeam  the  thought  of  that  hour ; 
But  still  in  his  day-dreams  the  wanderer  hovers 

O'er  the  cottage  he  left,  and  its  green-woven  bower ; 
And  Hope  lingers  near  him,  her  wildest  song  breathing, 

And  points  to  a  future  day,  distant  and  dim, 
When  the  fingers  of  Summer,  its  eglantine  wreathing, 

Shall  brighten  the  home  of  his  childhood  for  him. 

The  letter  which  follows  contains  an  allusion  to  the 
Washington  and  Warren  Bank,  established  by  Jacob 
Barker  at  Sandy  Hill  near  Lake  George,  and  also 
makes  mention  of  a  number  of  the  current  publications 
of  that  day,  written  by  William  Beckford,  Leigh  Hunt, 
Walter  Scott,  and  the  Ettrick  Shepherd : 


1 88  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

[TO   MISS    HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Nov.  9,  1817. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  Your  letter  of  the  i3th  ult. 
came  in  due  course.  My  excursion  to  the  north  was 
not  one  of  pleasure.  Had  I  the  privilege  of  making 
such  excursions,  my  steps  would  be  turned  in  a  differ 
ent  direction.  I  went  to  Lake  George  purely  on  busi 
ness.  Being  the  (nominal)  director  of  a  bank  near 
there,  my  presence  was  necessary  previous  to  the  com 
mencement  of  its  operations.  I  shall  be  obliged  to  go 
again,  probably,  in  a  few  weeks.  I  do  not  anticipate 
much  pleasure  from  the  journey  at  this  time,  as  the 
novelty,  a  principal  inducement,  is  no  more,  and  the 
weather  will,  I  fear,  be  too  cold  for  comfort,  particu 
larly  in  a  climate  five  or  six  degrees  of  latitude  to  the 
northward  of  this  place. 

You  need  be  in  no  hurry  about  returning  the  books, 
I  am  not  in  immediate  want  of  them.  I  sent  another 
package  to  Henry  Spencer's  store,  to  be  forwarded  to 
you.  He  has  kindly  promised  to  take  charge  of  any 
parcel  I  may  leave  with  him.  I  have  not  seen  him 
since  they  were  sent  to  him,  which  is  a  week  or  so  ago. 
Have  you  received  them  ?  I  almost  forget  what  they 
were,  but  am  sure  that  they  included  the  second  vol 
ume  of  "  Tales  of  my  Landlord,"  and  the  "Antiqua 
ry,"  in  two  volumes,  and  "  Vathek,"  a  Persian  story. 
Lord  Byron,  in  the  notes  to  some  of  his  poems,  speaks 
very  highly  of  this  work.  I  was,  in  consequence,  in- 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^9 

duced  to  read  it,  and  am  much  pleased  with  it.  I  hope 
you  will  find  it  amusing.  Hunt's  "  Story  of  Rimini  " 
and  Hogg's  "  Queen's  Wake  "  were  among  them. 
The  latter,  I  believe,  you  have  read.  However,  it  is 
well  worth  a  second  perusal.  Hunt's  "Rimini"  con 
tains  some  charming  poetry,  and  much  original  power 
of  description.  The  story  is  a  silly  one,  similar  to 
Lord  Byron's  "  Parisina,"  though,  I  believe,  written 
first,  of  course  not  a  plagiarism.  In  addition  to  these, 
there  were  some  numbers  of  the  Boston  Atkenceum, 
which  will  probably  entertain  you.  If  there  were  any 
more,  I  cannot  remember  them,  and  at  any  rate  you 
will  find  out  when  you  open  the  package.  I  shall  make 
it  a  point  to  send  you  some  more  in  a  short  time.  If 
there  is  any  work  you  have  heard  of  and  wish  to  read, 
please  mention  it,  and  you  shall  have  it.  I  wish  I 
could  send  myself  in  a  package  to  you  instead  of  the 
books,  as  I  have  no  doubt  you  would  peruse  me  with 
pleasure,  but  "  Helas  !  cela  ne  pent  pas.  II  faut  se 
soumettre"  In  plain  English,  It  cannot  be. 
Yours  affectionately, 

GREENE. 

ALBANY,  Dec.  4,  1817. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  I  arrived  here  yesterday  on  my 
way  to  Lake  George,  where,  I  imagine,  I  shall  be  de 
tained  some  weeks.  A  severe  rheumatism  in  my  right 
shoulder  has  been  bothering  me  for  some  time,  and  has 


jOO  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

become  at  length  extremely  painful — so  that  I  am  little 
short  of  miserable.  You  know  I  have  been  hitherto, 
thank  God,  a  stranger  to  any  thing  like  pain  or  illness, 
and  perhaps  the  novelty  attached  to  being  unable  to 
raise  my  arm  to  my  head  may  be  one  great  source  of 
my  uneasiness,,  and  that  when  I  get,  like  thousands  of 
other  sufferers,  accustomed  to  it,  I  may  learn  to  bear 
without  much  murmuring.  When  I  reach  Sandy  Hill, 
my  place  of  destination,  I  shall  have  little  to  do  but 
nurse  it,  and  I  hope  it  will  soon  leave  me.  For  that 
place  I  start  to-morrow  morning.  It  is  about  sixty 
miles,  one  day's  ride  from  here. 

D.  Woodward  handed  me  a  letter  from  you  while 
he  was  in  New  York.  I  had  written  you  per  mail 
about  a  week  before.  You  did  not  mention  having  re 
ceived  my  letter  ;  probably,  as  you  say  the  mail  passes 
but  twice  a  week  through  Guilford,  it  had  not  time  to 
reach  you,  although  it  had  been  seven  or  eight  days 
on  the  road.  It  was  of  no  consequence,  however,  and 
contained  nothing  valuable. 

George  Hill  called  on  me  last  week  on  his  way  to 
the  South.  I  accompanied  him  on  board  the  vessel  to 
see  his  wife  and  mother.  The  latter  has  been,  and  still 
is,  a  very  fine-looking  woman.  With  his  wife  I  was 
much  pleased.  She  is,  to  be  sure,  any  thing  but 
handsome,  but  has  an  air  of  good-humor  and  good 
sense  about  her,  which  endears  her  at  first  view ;  and 
from  the  short  conversation  which  took  place,  I  was 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jpj 

inclined  to  form  a  good  opinion  of  her  powers  of  pleas 
ing.     She  will  certainly  make  an  admirable  wife. 

On  my  return  to  New  York,  I  shall  send  you  some 
more  books ;  presuming  that  you  will  have  devoured 
those  you  have  by  that  time.  You  may  calculate  on  a 
visit  from  me  certainly  in  the  spring — extraordinaries 
always  excepted — and  perhaps  in  the  course  of  two  or 
three  months. 

It  is  uncertain  how  long  I  shall  remain  at  Sandy 
Hill ;  probably  a  fortnight.  I  shall  make  it  a  point  to 
write  you  from  thence. 

I  have  some  additional  poems  of  Drake's,  which  I 
copied  for  the  purpose  of  sending  to  you,  but  I  left 
New  York  with  so  little  preparation,  that  I  had  not 
time  to  forward  them,  and  forgot  to  bring  them  with 
me.  Yours, 

GREENE. 

The  next  two  letters,  written  by  Joseph  Rodman 
Drake  and  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  will  allude  to  the  same 
sad  subject — the  self-destruction  of  a  mutual  friend 
named  Walter  Franklin,  who  shot  himself  during  Hal- 
leek's  a.bsence  at  Sandy  Hill. 

[TO  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Dec.  12,  1817. 

MY  DEAR  FlTZ  :  I  hardly  feel  myself  capable  of 
writing,  but  the  news  I  have  to  tell  will  shock  you  less 


J02  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

from  me  than  if  you  heard  it  through  the  medium  of  a 
newspaper.  Our  friend  Walter  has  terminated  his  own 
existence.  The  causes  which  have  led  to  it  are  yet 
obscure.  No  writing,  no  paper,  tending  to  throw  any 
light  on  it,  has  been  found.  On  Wednesday,  the 
day  before  he  died,  he  was  with  me  during  the  day, 
from  ten  in  the  morning  until  late  at  night — but  there 
was  no  agitation  in  his  manner,  no  depression  of  spirits, 
to  lead  to  any  suspicion  of  the  state  of  his  mind.  He 
was,  if  there  was  any  difference,  more  placidly  cheer 
ful  than  ever.  There  seemed  to  be  a  gentleness  in  his 
mirth  which  was  unusual  with  him,  but  I  attributed  it 
to  our  reconciliation.  It  was  on  Monday  that  he  called 
on  me  first,  and  from  that  time  he  was  with  me  almost 
constantly  until  the  fatal  morning. 

Many  circumstances  have  occurred  to  prove  that 
the  deed  was  long  premeditated.  A  number  of  ex 
pressions  which  he  made  use  of  in  conversation  with 
me,  at  that  time  obscure,  are  now  elucidated ;  but 
they  were  used  -in  a  pleasant  conversation,  and  uttered 
in  too  gay  a  tone  to  make  any  impression  on  me  at  the 
time. 

The  morning  on  which  he  committed  the  deed  he 
was  in  unusual  spirits,  romped  a  great  deal  with  the 
children,  and  amused  them  with  firing  his  pistols  out 
of  the  window.  Soon  after,  he  sent  them  down-stairs 
and  told  them  he  would  read  till  dinner-time.  He 
then  lay  down  on  the  bed,  placed  a  looking-glass  be- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^3 

tween  his  knees  to  direct  his  aim,  and  fired.  The  re 
port  did  not  alarm  the  family,  and  his  situation  was 
not  discovered  until  his  father  came  up-stairs  to  call 
him  to  dinner.  You  can  imagine  his  feelings. 

The  family  are  in  the  deepest  distress,  Mary  par 
ticularly.  I  have  written  at  her  request  for  Bond  to 
come  on — his  presence  will  be  the  only  thing  that  can 
afford  her  consolation. 

Faithfully  yours, 

J.  R.  DRAKE. 

[TO  MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Dec.  15,  1817. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  I  returned  home  yesterday, 
having  accomplished  the  objects  of  my  journey  sooner 
than  I  expected.  A  letter  from  you,  directed  to  me 
here,  came  to  hand  during  my  absence,  and  was  for 
warded  on  to  Lake  George.  It  will  be  returned  to  me 
from  thence  in  a  few  days.  I  wrote  you  a  few  lines 
from  Albany.  Have  you  received  them  ? 

One  of  my  most  intimate  friends  shot  himself  on 
Thursday  last.  His  name  was  Franklin ;  a  boy  of 
nineteen ;  a  clerk  in  the  United  States  Bank.  I  be 
came  acquainted  with  him  through  Drake's  introduc 
tion  two  years  ago,  and  we  have  since  been  bosom 
friends.  He  was  an  extraordinary  character  in  every 
respect ;  with  a  mind  strong,  and  powerful,  and  ener- 
9 


I94  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

getic  far  beyond  his  years  ;  an  enthusiast  in  poetry,  in 
music,  in  every  thing.  But  he  had  viewed  life  so  long 
on  the  dark  side  of  the  picture,  that  his  countenance 
had  assumed  a  continual  gloom,  which,  even  in  his 
most  cheerful  hours,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  maddest 
mirth,  was  always  perceivable.  He  was  the  handsomest 
being  I  ever  saw.  He  was  six  feet  high,  perfectly  pro 
portioned,  and  had  as  fine  a  face  as  nature  ever  formed. 
His  powers  of  conversation  were  unlimited,  though  he 
turned  generally,  if  possible,  on  metaphysical  subjects, 
or  on  some  theme  wild,  and  daring,  and  romantic,  that 
suited  the  gloomy  color  of  his  thoughts.  He  was,  in 
short,  a  complete  Hyppolito  in  many  respects.  We  had 
often  conversed  on  suicide,  and  I  joined  him  in  the 
opinion  that  the  world  contained  nothing  worth  living 
for,  and  he  was  the  most  fortunate  whose  task  was 
soonest  ended.  Some  weeks  previous  to  my  leaving 
town  he  purchased  a  pair  of  pistols,  with  which,  he 
told  me,  he  intended  to  shoot  himself,  but,  it  being  an 
old  subject  and  theme  of  conversation,  I  thought  no 
more  of  it.  Nothing  of  any  importance  occurred  to 
him  for  some  days  previous  to  his  death.  He  had 
passed  the  previous  evening  with  Drake,  and  appeared 
in  a  more  calm,  temperate  flow  of  spirits  than  ever — 
read  Shakespeare,  and  commented  on  him  with  his 
usual  enthusiasm.  The  next  morning,  he  amused  him 
self  by  firing  his  pistols  out  of  his  chamber-window. 
Some  boys  before  the  window  asked  him  to  fire  again  ; 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  j^ 

he  answered,  "  I  shall  fire  once  more  at  one  o'clock." 
At  that  hour  a  report  was  heard,  but,  from  the  con 
tinual  firing  all  the  morning,  it  excited  no  alarm.  His 
father  came  home  at  two  o'clock,  went  to  Walter's 
room ;  he  was  not  in.  The  door  of  his  sister's  room 
was  locked ;  on  bursting  it  open,  he  was  found  dead  on 
the  bed.  He  had  stretched  himself  upon  it,  placed  a 
small  looking-glass  between  his  knees  in  such  a  manner 
that  he  could  see  his  pistol  when  at  his  forehead,  and 
fired.  The  ball  passed  through  his  temple  and  lodged 
in  the  wall.  His  death  must  have  been  instantaneous, 
and  without  a  pang,  for  his  countenance  was  perfectly 
calm  and  unruffled,  not  a  muscle  distorted,  nor  even  a 
curl  of  the  lip  to  denote  agony.  I  need  not  paint  the 
anguish  of  a  father's,  mother's,  brother's,  and  sister's 
feelings,  or  of  a  young  lady  to  whom  he  was  betrothed. 
I  thank  Heaven  I  was  not  here  to  witness  the  first  mad 
ness  of  that  moment's  agony. 

In  a  few  days  I  will  write  you  again.  My  rheuma 
tism  is  much  better.  It  is  no  longer  painful,  though 
my  arm  is  still  somewhat  stiff. 

Yours  affectionately, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

In  a  fragment  of  a  letter  written  January  24,  1818, 
by  the  poet,  to  I  know  not  whom,  occurs  the  following 
mention  of  Dr.  William  Langstaff,  a  most  eccentric 
character,  with  whom  DeKay,  Drake,  and  Halleck, 


I96  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

were  for  many  years  on  terms  of  the  closest  intimacy : 
"  Langstaff  is  a  nondescript.  He  is  something  like 
Lord  Byron's  'Lara,'  for  nobody  knows  where  he 
came  from,  or  who  he  is.  He  says  he  is  from  some 
where  near  London,  and  there  his  history  ends.  It 
would  appear  that  he  has  been  in  Holland  and  a 
part  of  France,  as  he  sometimes  mentions  having  been 
there  when  a  boy.  He  is  now  about  my  age.  Some 
eight  or  ten  years  ago,  Doctor  Bruce,  a  physician  of 
eminence,  came  across  him,  I  know  not  where  or  how, 
and  finding  he  possessed  an  extraordinary  genius  for 
mineralogy,  of  which  the  said  Doctor  Bruce  was  pro 
fessor,  he  took  him  under  his  patronage,  though  it 
seems  he  knew  more  of  mineralogy  even  then  than  the 
professor  himself.  By  the  by,  while  I  am  on  the  sub 
ject,  I  must  mention  to  you  that  Doctor  Bruce  is 
brother  to  the  Earl  of  Arran,  and  a  lineal  descendant 
of  Robert  Bruce.  His  wife  is  also  of  the  nobility,  and 
as  proud  as  Lucifer  ;  though  a  very  accomplished  wo 
man,  and  a  little  given  to  drinking.  Her  name  was 
White.  She  has  a  brother  a  major-general  in  the 
British  army,  and  bottle-companion  to  the  Prince  Re 
gent,  another  an  admiral  in  the  navy,  and  cousins 
without  number,  titled  and  untitled.  I  had  the  honor 
at  her  house  of  bowing  to  the  Marquis  of  Tweeddale, 
Lord  O'Neale,  the  Earl  of  Selkirk,  Sir  James  Yeo,  and 
half  a  dozen  others  whose  names  and  titles  I  have  for 
gotten.  Excuse  this  episode.  To  return  to  LangstafF. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  ^7 

He  studied  medicine  with  Bruce,  and,  after  receiving 
his  degree  as  an  M.  D.,  hired  a  room,  or  rather  a  her 
mit's  cell,  where  he  has  since  subsisted  by  the  practice 
of  medicine  and  the  sale  of  mineralogical  cabinets, 
which  he  spends  all  the  summer  in  procuring.  It 
would  amuse  you  to  see  him  squatted  upon  a  stone 
fence  or  some  old  weather-beaten  rock,  in  a  fine,  hot 
summer's  day,  digging  out  small  pieces  of  stone  with  a 
mallet  and  chisel,  and  enjoying,  in  spite  of  a  burning 
sun,  more  delight  than  even  a  poet  in  his  wildest  mo 
ments.  Were  it  not  for  the  pleasure  he  takes  in  this 
science,  he  would,  like  Walter  Franklin,  have  shot 
himself  long  ago,  for  a  more  miserable  being  than  he 
is  generally  cannot  exist.  He  is  occasionally  a  perfect 
misanthrope,  and  there  are  times  when  the  glare  of  his 
eye  would  remind  you  of  one  of  Dante's  fiends.  Yet, 
strange  as  it  may  appear,  his  forte  is  humor,  and  in 
his  gay  moments  his  conversation  is  the  most  enter 
taining  and  amusing  imaginable,  as  the  structure  of  his 
mind  is  so  completely  original  that  *  *  *  " 

In  the  spring  of  1818,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Drake,  with 
DeKay,  visited  Europe,  and,  through  the  liberality  of 
Henry  Eckford,  the  eminent  ship-builder  of  New  York, 
and  the  father  of  Mrs.  Drake,  Dr.  Langstaff  accom 
panied  them.  During  their  foreign  tour,  Halleck  re 
ceived  the  following  poetical  epistles,  written  by  his 
friend  Joseph  Rodman  Drake.  The  one  dated  May 
first  is  certainly  remarkable  as  being  the  production 


I98  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of  an  American  who  had  not  been  ten  days  in  Scot 
land: 

DUMFRIES,  May  i,  1818. 

Well,  Fitz,  I'm  here,  the  mair's  the  pity, 
I'll  wad  ye  curse  the  vera  city 
From  which  I  write  a  braid  Scotch  ditty, 

Afore  I  learn  it ; 
But  if  ye  canna  mak  it  suit  ye, 

Ye  ken  ye'll  burn  it. 

My  grunzie's  gat  a  twist  intill  it, 

Thae  damned  Scotch  aighs  sae  stuff  and  fill  it, 

I  doubt  wi'  a'  my  doctor's  skill  it 

'11  keep  the  gait, 
Not  e'en  my  pen  can  scratch  a  billet 

And  write  it  straight. 

Ye're  aiblins  thinking  to  forgather. 
Wi'  a  hale  sheet  of  muir  and  heather, 
O'  burns  and  braes  and  sic  like  blather 

To  you  a  feast, 
But  stop,  ye  will  not  light  on  either 

This  time  at  least. 

Now  stir  your  bries  a  wee  and  ferlie, 
Then  drop  your  lip  and  glower  surly ; 
Troth  if  you  do,  I'll  tell  ye  fairly 

Ye'll  no'  be  right— 
We've  made  our  jaunt  a  bit  too  early 

For  sic  a  sight. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

What  it  may  be  when  summer  deeds 
Muir,  shaw,  and  brae  wi'  bonnie  weeds, 
Sprinkling  the  gowan  on  the  meads, 

And  browsy  knowes, 
I  dinna  ken — but  now  the  meads 

Scarce  keep  the  cows. 

For  trees  poor  Scotia's  sadly  scanted ; 
A  few  bit  pines  and  larches  planted, 
And  thae,  wee,  knurlie,  blastie,  stunted 

As  e'er  thou  sawest : 
Row  but  a  sma'  turf  fence  anent  it, 

Hech  !  there's  a  forest. 

For  streams  ye'll  find  a  puny  puddle, 
That  wouldn't  float  a  skulebairn's  coble ; 
A  cripple  still  might  near  hand  hobble 

Dry  bauchled  over ; 
Some  whinstone  crags  to  make  it  bubble, 

And  there's  a  river. 

And  then  their  cauld  and  reekie  skies, 
They  luke  ower  dull  to  Yankee  eyes  ; 
The  sun  ye'd  ken  na  of  his  rise 

A'maist  the  day, 
Just  a  noonblink  that  hardly  dries 

The  dewy  brae. 

Yet  leese  auld  Scotland  on  her  women, 
Ilk  sonzie  lass  and  noble  yeoman, 


200  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

For  luver's  heart  or  blade  of  foeman 

O'er  baith  victorious ; 
E'en  common  sense,  that  plant  uncommon, 

Grows  bright  and  glorious. 

Fecks  !  but  my  pen  has  skelp'd  along, 
I've  whistled  out  an  unco'  song 
'Bout  folk  I  ha'  no  been  amang 

Twa  days  as  yet, 
But,  faith,  the  farther  that  I  gang, 

The  mair  ye'll  get. 

Sae  sharpen  up  your  lugs,  for  soon 
I'll  tread  the  hazelly  braes  o'  Doon, 
See  Mungo's  well,  and  set  my  shoon 

Where  i'  the  dark 
Bauld  Tammie  keek'd  the  drunken  loon 

At  cutty  sark. 

And  I  shall  tread  the  hallowed  bourne 
Where  Wallace  blew  his  bugle-horn 
O'er  Edward's  banner,  stained  and  torn. 

What  Yankee  bluid 
But  feels  its  free  pulse  leap  and  burn 

Where  Wallace  stood ! 

But  pouk  my  pen — I  find  I'm  droppin' 
My  braw  Scotch  style  to  English  loppin', 
I  fear  a'maist  that  ye'll  be  hoppin' 

I'd  quite  it  quite. 
If  so,  I  e'en  must  think  of  stoppin', 

And  sae  gude-night. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2OI 

IRVINE,  ioth  May,  1818. — 10  p.  M. 

My  Muse  is  almost  fagged  with  writing, 
From  twelve  at  noon  I've  been  inditing. 
Father,  four  sheets  of  jack-screw  packing, 
So  close,  they  look  like  daubs  of  blacking ; 
Two  letters  in  a  rhyming  strain 
To  dearest  sisters  o'er  the  main ; 
You're  at  the  fag-end  of  the  feast, 
But  Billy  has  it—"  last  not  least." 
I  wrote  you  late  a  queer  hotch-potch 
Of  English  clipped  and  broken  Scotch, 
But  luckily  I  chanced  to  pass, 
While  reading  it,  before  the  glass, 
And  saw  my  grunzie  on  the  gape 

In  such  a  d d  ungainly  shape, 

So  twirled  and  twisted,  full  and  hollow, 

In  such  a  storm  of  sweat  and  swallow, 

I  stopped,  betwixt  a  laugh  and  curse. 

I  swore,  e'en  though  my  rhymes  were  worse, 

I'd  have  some  pity  on  your  mouth, 

And  clink  the  language  of  the  South, 

In  all  the  future  lines  I  send  ye, 
Which  (patience  to  ye)  will  be  plenty. 
But,  Fitz,  I'll  not  be  saying  neither, 
I'll  drop  the  lawless  altogether, 
Only  not  haul  it  by  the  lugs,        .  . 
As  honest  Swankie  did  his  hogs, 
9* 


202  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

When  he  advanced  them  from  the  byre 
To  grunt  hog-Latin  with  the  friar. 
From  Ribbleside  to  Irvine  town 
Each  step  has  been  on  poet's  groun' ; 
Think  how  my  rhyming  soul  was  swelling 
Within  eyeshot  of  gray  Welvelyn ! 
To  mark  from  Skiddaw's  mighty  lap 
The  land  of  porringers  and  pap, 
With  lakes  that  glittered  bright  between, 
Like  duckponds  from  a  dunghill  seen  ; 
The  varied  beauties  of  the  way, 
Coal-works,  gibbets,  stacks  of  hay, 
Canals  and  railways,  freestone  bridges, 
Right-angled  gardens,  and  clipped  hedges  ; 
And  then  to  meet,  how  vastly  pleasant, 
A  full-fed  brute  in  every  peasant ! 

And  here,  although  across  the  border, 
The  men  are  of  a  different  order ; 
The  feint  a  sight  your  eyeball  crosses 
But  whinstone  hills  and  dark  peat -mosses, 
Braw  bare-legged  girls,  auld  smoky  queans, 
And  filthy  huts,  and  filthier  weans. 
But,  stop,  Sir  Poet,  if  you  please, 
We're  o'er  the  Nith  and  past  Dumfries, 
And  here,  God  bless  the  spot  forever, 
There's  something  like  a  Yankee  river ; 
Though  small  and  weak,  its  light  waves  swell ; 
My  bonny  Bronx,  'tis  like  your  sell, 
And  that's  eno'  to  make  me  pour 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

A  hearty  blessing  on  your  shore. 

And  now  the  misty  sun's  revealing 

Scenes  that  would  rouse  a  Dutchman's  feeling. 

Where'er  the  eye  enraptured  turns, 

Some  relique  of  her  minstrel  Burns 

Shines  on  old  Scotia's  barren  land, 

Like  the  green  spots  on  Afric's  sand. 

The  bush  that  heard  his  first  love- vow, 

The  field  where  last  he  held  the  plough, 

The  hill  whose  kindling  sides  along 

First  pealed  the  Bruce' s  battle-song, 

The  low  thatch-roof  where  Coila  stood, 

The  bowl  that  fired  the  poet's  blood, 

To  sing  how  wi'  his  parting  breath 

A  Scotsman  gi'es  the  grip  to  Death  ! 

The  burnie  banks  he  oft  has  trod, 

And  out,  alas !  the  silent  sod 

Where  sleeps  in  his  untimely  cell 

The  master  of  the  mighty  spell. 

Ah,  Rob !  my  friend,  for  so  you've  been  aye, 

Save  Shakespeare's  self,  the  best  of  any, 

Blithe  wad  I  been  if  .ye  had  known 

To  let  strong  drink  and  priests  alone, 

Or  only  used  in  moderation 

Those  two  grand  curses  of  creation, 

Then  had  ye  shone  the  first  in  glory, 

Not  Campbell's  self  a  fool  before  ye, 

Nor  died,  like  Basil's  holy  pigeon, 

Martyr  to  whiskey  and  religion. 


204  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Westward  away  we  take  the  air, 
Just  stop  at  Irvine's  holy  fair, 
And  then  for  Ayr's  twa  clavering  brigs, 
And  green  Tarbolton's  barley  rigs. 
We  passed  poor  Mailla's  dike,  the  banks 
Where  honest  Luath  eased  his  shanks, 
And  wi'  his  stroanin'  crony  sat 
An  hour  in  philosophic  chat ; 
We  took  our  whiskey  in  the  cot 
Where  ranter  Rob  was  born  and  got ; 
Saw  the  old  thorn,  the  stump  of 't  rather, 
That  stopped  the  gab  of  Mungo's  mither, 
And  in  the  kirk's  bedevilled  tower 
Stood  in  the  rain  a  good  half  hour. 
We  found  where  Nannie  in  her  dances 
Exposed  her  legs  to  Satan's  glances, 
Until  his  winding  clumsy  bones, 
In  amorous  fidgets,  ground  the  stones. 
We  passed  the  brig  (of  brigs  the  wale) 
Where  Maggie  warsled  for  her  tail, 
And  coming  back,  the  last  of  any, 
Saw  the  wee  house  of  Souter  Johnny. 

For  Wallace,  Fitz,  I've  had  a  damper; 
My  wits  were  on  an  up-hill  scamper 
To  see  where  Scotland's  genius  rose 
In  triumph  o'er  her  prostrate  foes  ; 
But  Ayr's  dull  brutes,  to  scrape  a  farthing, 
Have  turned  the  proud  barns  to  a  garden. 
(Blasted  be  every  blade  the  springs, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2O$ 

Unless  the  angry  nettle  flings 
Her  armed  and  bristly  branches  there, 
To  guard  the  hallowed  Burns  of  Ayr. ) 
The  tower  is  there,  the  clock,  the  spire, 
Whence  fifty  feet,  perhaps,  or  higher, 
Hurled  by  the  English  imps  of  hell, 
From  off  the  top  the  hero  fell, 
And  almost  broke  his  gallant  bones 

Against  the  d d  hard-hearted  stones. 

And  there's  the  stone,  a  wee  Scotch  pebble 
(Ten  men  to  lift  it  were  unable), 
Which  Wallace  skelpit  o'er  the  house 
As  easy  as  you  would  a  mouse. 
Such  sweating  tales  we  have  in  plenty, 
But  what  I've  written  will  content  ye. 

To-morrow,  or  the  next  day  comin', 
Our  party's  off  toward  Loch  Lomond, 
And  thence,  o'er  water,  hill,  and  isle, 
To  Erne,  Katrine,  and  Aberfoyle. 
The  sky  is  heavy,  dull,  o'ercast, 
And,  faith,  I'm  fearing  it  will  last ; 
And  if  it  should,  ye  may  divine 
We'll  find  the  Highlands  unco'  fine. 
God's  me  !  my  hat,  by  all  that's  cheerly, 
The  moon  is  up,  and  shining  clearly  ! 
Hey  !  for  an  harlequinian  antic, 
I've  been  a  month  across  th'  Atlantic, 
And  this  the  first  good  glimpse  mine  eye 
Has  gotten  of  a  Yankee  sky, 


2o6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

And  there's  the  star !  ye  west  winds  fan  her 

That  shines  upon  my  country's  banner. 

She  loves  the  West — she  seldom  flings 

Her  sparkle  points  on  eyeless  kings, 

But  keeps  them  for  the  gallant  lads 

Who  wear  her  in  their  black  cockades. 

Here,  where  mist,  cloud,  and  smoke  unite 

To  stifle  up  each  heavenly  light, 

Long  may  we  watch  each  wind  that  blows 

Before  that  glittering  eye  unclose. 

Thus,  to  my  country's  sore  dishonor, 

Old  England's  fog  lay  sore  upon  her, 

Till  roused  at  last,  each  spirit  proud 

Her  cannon-thunders  burst  the  cloud, 

And  poured  o'er  Europe's  hills  afar     • 

The  glories  of  the  Western  Star  ! 

Lord  !  but  she's  gone  !  and  here  again 

Our  old  acquaintance,  wind  and  rain. 

Ye  vaporous  jades  !  the  red  plague  rid  ye, 

If  ye'd  not  come  until  I  bid  ye 

Ye'd  still  be  wearing,  I've  a  notion, 

Your  white  foam  night-caps  o'er  the  ocean, 

And  I'd  have  time  mine  eyes'  to  feast 

On  my  bright  star  an  hour  at  least. 

Yet,  Hesper  !  though  ye  now  must  darkle, 

Lord  bless  you  for  that  pleasant  sparkle. 

I  think  ye  must  have  known  this  even 

A  Yankee  eye  was  turned  toward  heaven, 

And  shoved  the  surly  clouds  askance 

To  give  him  just  a  friendly  glance, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  207 

Mind  him  of  home,  help  on  his  letter, 
And  make  him  sleep  to-night  the  better. 
Ah  !  Fitz,  my  lad,  I'm  thinking,  aye, 
How  blithe  and  happy'll  be  the  day 
When  we  shall  meet  again  together 
I*  the  land  of  freedom  and  fine  weather ; 
How  we  shall  talk  of  all  that's  past 
Since  you  and  me  forgathered  last ; 
And,  fecks  !  ye'll  crack  a  dainty  kernel 
When  ye  get  hold  of  Wully's  journal. 
I'd  thought  by  this  to  send  a  sample, 
But  my  scrimp  paper's  hardly  ample 
Eno'  to  hold  another  line, 
Except  "  Your  most "  or  "  Ever  thine." 

The  earliest  poem  admitted  into  the  various  edi 
tions  of  Halleck's  collected  writings,  published  during 
his  life,  was  one  written  for  Miss  McCall,  entitled 
"  The  world  is  bright  before  thee,"  and  the  next,  in 
point  of  date,  "  Twilight."  These  beautiful  lines  were 
composed  on  a  lovely  moonlight  evening  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1818,  while  passing  up  on  Long-Island  Sound  to 
New  Haven,  en  route  for  his  native  town.  Miss  Hal- 
leek  very  distinctly  recalls  the  fact  of  her  brother,  on 
his  arrival  at  home,  asking  for  pen,  ink,  and  paper, 
when  he  immediately  wrote  the  lines  almost  verbatim 
as  they  now  appear.  On  the  poet's  return  to  New 
York  he  sent  the  verses  anonymously  to  the  Evening 
Post,  then  under  the  editorial  charge  of  William  Cole- 


2o8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

man,  who  was  exceedingly  tenacious  as  to  the  contents 
of  his  paper.  When  Mr.  Halleck's  poem  was  received, 
it  was  immediately  given  to  the  printer  without  com 
ment,  which  was  considered,  by  those  who  knew  his 
fastidious  literary  tastes,  as  a  very  remarkable  instance 
of  appreciation.  Of  these  lines  it  has  been  said : 
"  There  is  about  them  a  holy  music,  which  rings  at 
the  portals  of  our  spiritual  ear  like  the  breathings  of 
some  enchanted  lute.  As  we  read  it,  all  our  visions  of 
the  tender  and  the  lovely  throng  up  in  glittering  array 
before  the  eye  of  reminiscence.  We  see  the  sunlight 
playing  again  on  the  rural  landscapes  of  our  early 
youth ;  a  momentary  glimpse  is  given  us  of  the  sheen 
of  waters,  that  can  never  flash  so  blue  and  bright  as  in 
other  days  ;  hallowed  hours,  spell-bound  moments,  are 
hurrying  by  upon  the  wings  of  remembrance ;  and 
convening  again  around  us,  in  sweet  communion,  the 
distant  and  the  dead,  we  go  back  with  rapture  to 
the  time  when,  to  our  unpractised  eyes,  there  was  a 
newness  of  lustre  in  the  brave  evening  firmament, 
fretted  with  dazzling  fires;  and  when  the  mere  boon 
of  existence  sufficed  us,  while  we  could  look  upon 
the  folded  lily  as  it  rested  in  humble  modesty  on  the 
margin  of  the  water-brook,  and  '  rocked  to  sleep  a 
world  of  insect-life  in  its  golden  cradle.'  These,  of 
course,  were  childish  affections,  and  when  we  come  to 
be  men  we  put  away  childish  things ;  but  a  strain  like 
'  Twilight '  represents  them  anew. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  .  209 

"  The  moral  idea  of  this  poem  is  as  charming  as  its 
execution.  The  subject  is  common  enough ;  but  it  is 
the  treatment  which  gives  it  unction  and  acceptance. 
One  naturally  loves  to  contemplate  the  setting  sun, 
when,  after  describing  one  of  his  long  summer  arches, 
his  red  forehead  plunges  adown  the  west,  and  gor 
geous  companies  of  clouds.  '  contextured  in  the  loom 
of  heaven,'  begirt  him  round,  waiting  in  painted  liv 
eries  about  his  royal  throne.  Heaven  seems  nearer  at 
hand ;  the  creeping  murmurs  of  the  dark  appear  pre 
paring  to  stir  from  their  caverns ;  the  twilight-breeze  is 
lifting  its  wings  from  the  white  crests  of  the  ocean,  and 
poising  them  for  a  rush  over  the  interminable  inland ; 
and  the  crescent  moon,  with  the  largest  stars  burning 
in  her  train,  hangs  herself  in  the  dark  depths  of  heaven, 
dividing  with  the  farewell  light  of  day  that  aerial  abyss. 
At  an  hour  like  this  we  cannot  help  exclaiming,  with 
the  tranquillizing  Gliick : 

'  Methinks  it  were  no  pain  to  die 
On  such  an  eve,  when  such  a  sky 

O'ercanopies  the  west : 
To  gaze  my  fill  on  yon  calm  deep, 
And,  like  an  infant,  sink  to  sleep 

On  Earth,  my  mother's  breast. 

'There's  peace  and  welcome  in  yon  sea 
Of  endless,  blue  tranquillity — 

Those  clouds  are  living  things  ; 


210  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

I  trace  their  veins  of  liquid  gold — 
I  see  them  solemnly  unfold 

Their  soft  and  fleecy  wings. 

*  There  be  the  angels  that  convey 
Us,  weary  pilgrims  of  a  day, 

Life's  tedious  nothings  o'er, 
Where  neither  cares  can  come,  nor  woes, 
To  vex  the  genius  of  repose, 

On  death's  majestic  shore.'  "  l 

After  a  portion  of  the  "  Croakers  "  had  been  pub 
lished  in  1819,  Coleman,  of  the  Evening  Post,  reprinted 
"  Twilight,"  with  the  following  introduction:  "We 
republish  the  following  beautiful  lines  from  our  own 
files  of  October  last,  for  the  three  following  reasons : 
first,  because  of  their  intrinsic  merit ;  they  are  the  in 
spirations  of  poetry  itself.  Second,  because  they  were 
injured  in  their  first  publication  by  a  typographical 
error;  and  lastly,  because  they  show  that  our  corre 
spondent  Croaker  (whose  we  have  just  discovered  they 
are)  no  less  resembles  Peter  Pindar  in  his  elegiac  than 
in  his  humor  and  satiric  vein." 

The  only  letter  written  by  Halleck  to  his  sister  in 
1818  which  has  been  preserved  is  dated  November  iQth, 
and  chronicles  the  first  announcement  met  with  in  his 
epistles  of  his  being  subject  to  terrible  fits  of  depres 
sion,  and  also  alludes  to  the  return  from  Europe  of  his 
friends  the  Drakes : 

1  American  Quarterly  Review,  June,  1837. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2II 

[TO  MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Nov.  19,  1818. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  I  have  not  written  you  for  a  long 
time  past,  for  the  best  of  all  possible  reasons — I  had 
nothing  to  write.  Since  my  return  from  my  excursion 
to  Guilford,  my  time  has  been  devoted  to  my  laborious 
employment,  and  my  leisure  hours,  of  course,  to  my 
only  companions,  books ;  besides,  I  have  been  exces 
sively  ill,  to  say  the  truth,  for  a  long  time  past ;  a  total 
loss  of  appetite,  or  rather — for  I  know  not  what  to  call 
it — a  total  indifference  whether  I  ate  or  drank  any 
thing  or  not ;  a  sort  of  ague  all  day  and  a  violent  fever 
all  night,  have  combined  to  worry  me  and  wear  me 
out.  I  felt  no  pain  or  feebleness.  I  was  not  miser 
able,  but  my  mind  felt  a  kind  of  indifference  toward 
every  thing  like  emotion,  whether  of  pain  or  pleasure ; 
in  short,  I  was  a  complete  stoic,  and  could  have  re 
ceived  the  most  unexpected  delight  without  a  smile, 
and  heard  of  some  unlooked-for  stroke  of  ruin  without  a 
pang.  I  bore  all  very  patiently,  indeed,  thought  little 
about  it,  till  I  found  I  could  smoke  cigars  no  longer 
with  any  pleasure.  I  then  fancied  all  was  over  with  me, 
and  called  upon  Villagrand's  family  physician,  an  old 
friend  of  mine.  He  listened  to  my  complaints  very 
calmly,  and  then,  would  you  believe  it,  told  me  I  had 
the  hypo,  so  prescribed  me  nothing  at  all,  and  I  find 
I  am  since  getting  better.  I  really  thought  myself  the 
last  man  in  the  world  for  such  a  disorder,  but,  upon  my 


212 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


word,  I  believe  there  is  something  in  it,  although  my 
sedentary  habits  have  had  a  principal  tendency  to  im 
pair  my  health.  I  should  write  you  nothing  about  it, 
be  assured,  if  I  thought  it  any  thing  serious,  but  as  it 
is  nothing  but  the  hypo,  you  cannot  be  alarmed.  I 
really  am  better  this  week,  and  intend  to  recover.  . 

The  Drakes  and  Langstaff  have  returned  all  well  and 
in  good  spirits.  They  have  travelled  through  Scotland, 
Ireland,  England,  Wales,  France,  and  Holland.  I  will 
write  you  the  particulars  of  their  route  should  I  learn 
any  thing  from  them  interesting.  I  have  letters  from 
DeKay  to  the  I2th  September.  He  remains  at  Edin 
burgh.  He  sent  me  some  Scotch  magazines  and  other 
books.  MacCarthy  returned  from  the  West  Indies 
about  a  month  ago  in  good  health.  I  did  expect  he 
would  have  died  there,  but  he  seems  proof. 

I  shall  forward  you  some  more  books  soon,  as  I  ex 
pect  you  have  nearly  exhausted  the  old  ones.  There 
is  nothing  new  in  the  literary  world.  A  novel,  called 
"  Florence  McCarthy,"  by  Lady  Morgan,  will  appear 
soon.  .  Your  affectionate  brother, 

FITZ-GREENE. 

(By  the  way,  the  French  words  you  wish  translated 
are,  "  I  think  it  is  not  dancing,  'tis  marching  in  ca 
dence.") 

Among  the  later  colleagues  of  Mr.  Halleck's  in  the 
banking-house  of  Jacob  Barker,  was  Benjamin  R.  Win- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2l$ 

throp,  the  present  recipient  of  a  princely  estate.  The 
latter  accompanied  the  poet  on  one  occasion  when  he 
called  upon  a  miserly  retired  merchant  to  collect  a  sight 
draft,  which  was  for  a  certain  number  of  dollars  and 
ninety-four  cents.  The  merchant  could  not  make  the 
exact  change,  and  as  it  so  happened  that  neither  of  the 
young  men  had  six  cents,  he  wanted  them  to  go  back 
to  the  bank  and  get  the  amount.  This  they,  of  course, 
did  not  wish  to  do,  the  distance  being  at  least  a  mile, 
and  it  was  not  until  Halleck  had  several  times  assured 
him  on  his  honor  that  he  would  send  him  his  change, 
that  the  old  miser,  not  without  the  expression  of  much 
doubt  about  his  ever  seeing  his  six  cents,  consented  to 
pay  the  draft.  The  poet,  learning  that  one  of  his  pe 
culiarities  was  a  habit  of  sleeping  late  in  the  morning, 
and  that  he  moreover  entertained  an  especial  dislike  to 
being  disturbed  before  his  usual  time,  determined  to 
punish  the  niggardly  old  scamp ;  and  accordingly  he 
rang  his  bell  furiously  about  daylight  the  following 
morning,  asked  for  Mr.  M ,  and  requested  an  im 
mediate  interview  with  him  on  most  important  busi 
ness.  "  Can't  you  call  after  1 1  o'clock?  "  asked  the  ser 
vant.  "  Impossible,  must  see  him  instantly,"  said  the 
poet.  At  last  the  irascible  old  miser  appeared,  in  no 
amiable  mood,  when  the  poet,  with  his  best  bow  and 
sweetest  smile,  said :  "  Here  are  your  six  cents,  Mr. 

M ,  that  I  promised  to^  bring.      I  was  afraid  that 

I  might  forget  it,  which  I  did  not  wish  to  do,  having 


.214 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS. 


pledged  my  honor  that  I  would  pay  you  the  amount." 
And  without  waiting  for  his  thanks,  or  what  was  more 
likely,  his  maledictions,  for  disturbing  his  morning 
slumbers,  Mr.  Halleck  made  his  exit.  The  poet,  as  he 
passed  out  of  the  door,  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  victim, 
who  looked  unutterable  things,  but  was  either  too 
greatly  astonished  or  too  much  enraged  to  trust  him 
self  to  speak. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

1819-1822. 

The  Croakers. — Halleck's  and  Drake's  Sermons. — Anecdotes. — Residence 
at  Bloomingdale. — "  Fanny." — Letter  from  Prescott. — Death  of  Drake. 
— "Wyoming." — Visits  Canada. — Departure  for  Europe. — Arrival  at 
Liverpool. — Travels  in  Great  Britain,  France,  Switzerland,  and  Ger 
many. — Talleyrand. — "The  Ettrick  Shepherd." — Mrs.  Siddons. — Cole 
ridge. — "Yankee  Ravings." — "Alnwick  Castle  "and  other  Poems. 

[HE  amusing  series  of  verses  known  as  "  The 
Croakers,"  first  published  in  1819,  were  the 
joint  production  of  the  attached  friends  and  literary 
partners,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  and  Joseph  Rodman 
Drake — the  "Damon  and  Pythias"  of  American  poets. 
The  origin  of  these  sprightly  jeux  d"1  esprit,  as  eagerly 
looked  for  each  evening  as  were  the  war-bulletins  of  a 
later  day,  may  not  be  without  interest  to  the  authors' 
troops  of  admirers.  Halleck  and  Drake  were  spending 
a  Sunday  morning  with  Dr.  William  Langstaff,  an  ec 
centric  apothecary  and  an  accomplished  mineralogist, 
with  whom  they  were  both  intimate  (the  two  last  men 
tioned  were  previously  fellow-students  in  the  study  of 
medicine  with  Drs.  Bruce  and  Romayne),  when  Drake, 


2I6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

for  his  own  and  his  friends'  amusement,  wrote  several 
burlesque  stanzas  "  To  Ennui,"  Halleck  answering 
them  in  some  lines  on  the  same  subject.  The  young 
poets  decided  to  send  their  productions,  with  others  of 
a  similar  character,  to  William  Coleman,  the  editor  of 
the  Evening  Post.  If  he  published  them,  they  would 
write  more ;  if  not,  they  would  offer  them  to  M.  M. 
Noah,  of  the  National  Advocate ;  and,  if  he  declined 
their  poetical  progeny,  they  would  light  their  pipes 
with  them.  Drake  accordingly  sent  Coleman  three 
pieces  of  his  own,  signed  "  CROAKER,"  a  signature 
adopted  from  an  amusing  character  in  Goldsmith's 
comedy  of  "  The  Good-natured  Man."  To  their  as 
tonishment,  a  paragraph  appeared  in  the  Post  the  day 
following,  acknowledging  their  receipt,  promising  the 
insertion  of  the  poems,  pronouncing  them  to  be  the 
productions  of  superior  taste  and  genius,  and  begging 
the  honor  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  the  author. 
The  lines  "  To  Ennui"  appeared  March  10,  1819,  and 
the  others  in  almost  daily  succession  ;  those  written  by 
Mr.  Halleck  being  sometimes  signed  "  Croaker  Junior," 
while  those  which  were  their  joint  composition  general 
ly  bore  the  signature  of  "  Croaker  ami  Co." 

The  remark  made  by  Coleman  had  excited  public 
attention,  and  "  THE  CROAKERS  "  soon  became  a  sub 
ject  of  conversation  in  drawing-rooms,  book-stores, 
coffee-houses  on  Broadway,  and  throughout  the  city; 
they  were,  in  short,  a  town  topic.  The  two  friends 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  217 

contributed  other  pieces;  and  when  the  editor  again 
expressed  great  anxiety  to  be  acquainted  with  the 
writer,  and  used  a  style  so  mysterious  as  to  excite  their 
curiosity,  the  literary  partners  decided  to  call  upon 
him.  Halleck  and  Drake  accordingly,  one  evening, 
went  together,  to  Coleman's  residence  in  Hudson  Street, 
and  requested  an  interview.  They  were  ushered  into 
the  parlor,  the  editor  soon  entered,  the  young  poets 
expressed  a  desire  for  a  few  minutes'  strictly  private 
conversation  with  him,  and  the  door  being  closed  and 
locked,  Dr.  Drake  said — ee  I  am  Croaker,  and  this  gen 
tleman,  sir,  is  Croaker  Junior."  Coleman  stared  at 
the  young  men  with  indescribable  and  unaffected  as 
tonishment, — at  length  exclaiming  :  "  My  God,  I  had 
no  idea  that  we  had  such  talents  in  America  !  "  Hal 
leck,  with  his  characteristic  modesty,  was  disposed  to 
give  to  Drake  all  the  credit ;  but,  as  it  chanced  that 
Coleman  alluded  in  particularly  glowing  terms  to  one 
of  the  Croakers  that  was  wholly  his,  he  was  forced  to 
be  silent,  and  the  delighted  editor  continued  in  a  strain 
of  complement  and  eulogy  that  put  them  both  to  the 
blush.  Before  taking  their  leave,  the  poets  bound 
Coleman  over  to  the  most  profound  secrecy,  and  ar 
ranged  a  plan  of  sending  him  the  MS.,  and  of  receiving 
the  proofs,  in  a  manner  that  would  avoid  the  least  pos 
sibility  of  the  secret  of  their  connection  with  "  THE 
CROAKERS  "  being  discovered.  The  poems  were  copied 
from  the  originals  by  Langstaff,  that  their  handwriting 
10 


2i8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

should  not  divulge  the  secret,  and  were  either  sent 
through  the  mail,  or  taken  to  the  Evening-Post  office 
by  Benjamin  R.  Winthrop,  then  a  fellow-clerk  with 
Mr.  Halleck,  in  the  counting-house  of  the  well- 
known  banker  and  merchant,  Jacob  Barker,  in  Wall 
Street. 

Hundreds  of  imitations  of  "  THE  CROAKERS"  were 
daily  received  by  the  different  editors  of  New  York,  to 
all  of  which  they  gave  publicly  one  general  answer,  that 
they  lacked  the  genius,  spirit,  and  beauty  of  the  origi 
nals.  On  one  occasion  Coleman  showed  Halleck  fifteen 
he  had  received  in  a  single  morning,  all  of  which,  with 
a  solitary  exception,  were  consigned  to  the  waste-bas 
ket.  The  friends  continued  for  several  months  to  keep 
the  city  in  a  blaze  of  excitement ;  and  it  was  observed 
by  one  of  the  editors,  "  that  so  great  was  the  wincing 
and  shrinking  at  '  THE  CROAKERS,'  that  every  person 
was  on  tenter-hooks ;  neither  knavery  nor  folly  has 
slept  quietly  since  our  first  commencement." 

In  a  letter  to  Miss  Halleck,  dated  April  ist,  1819, 
the  poet  says,  "  Can  you  believe  it,  Maria,  Joe  l  and  I 
have  become  authors  ?  We  have  tastecl  all  the  pleas 
ures  and  many  of  the  pains  of  literary  fame  and  noto 
riety,  under  the  assumed  name  of  '  The  Croakers.' 
We  have  had  the  consolation  of  seeing  and  of  hearing 
ourselves  praised,  puffed,  eulogized,  execrated,  and 
threatened  as  much,  I  believe  I  can  say  with  truth,  as 

1  Joseph  Rodman  Drake.      • 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  319 

any  writers  since  the  days  of  Junius.  The  whole  town 
has  talked  of  nothing  else  for  three  weeks  past,  and 
every  newspaper  has  done  us  the  honor  to  mention  us 
in  some  way,  either  of  praise  or  censure,  but  all  uniting 
in  owning  our  talents  and  genius.  *  *  *  As  luck 
would  have  it,  Joe  was  under  the  necessity  of  going  to 
Albany,  and  I  have  been  compelled  to  carry  on  the 
war  alone  for  ten  days  past,  during  which  time  I  fur 
nished  Coleman  with  one  piece  each  day.  Langstaff  is 
at  work  copying  them  from  the  newspapers  into  a  book, 
which  I  shall  soon  send  you.  The  subjects  are,  many 
of  them,  purely  local,  and  will,  of  course,  be  unintelligi 
ble  to  you.  They  are  well  understood  here,  however. 
Joe  has  not  yet  returned,  and,  having  now  set  the 
whole  town  in  a  blaze,  I  have  thought  best  to  give 
them  a  '  resting-spell '  for  a  while." 

Mr.  Halleck  told  a  friend,1  "  that,  after  Drake's  pro 
posal  to  make  a  poetical  firm,  many  of  the  Croakers 
were  written  in  this  wise  :  he  or  Drake  would  furnish  a 
draft  of  a  poem,  and  that  one  or  the  other  would  sug 
gest  any  alteration  or  enlargement  of  the  idea  ;  a  closer 
clipping  of  the  wings  of  fancy;  a  little  epigrammatic 
spur  upon  the  heel  of  a  line.  I  doubt  very  much 
whether  I  have  a  right  to  disclose  the  method  by  which 
poets  work  in  their  work-shops,  but  as  I  am  only  re 
peating  Halleck's  ideas,  I  hold  it  to  be  no  base  betrayal 
of  the  craft.  To  show  how  delightful  these  joint  labors 

1  Frederick  S.  Cozzens. 


220  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

were  to  both  these  illustrious  men,  Halleck  told  me 
that,  upon  one  occasion,  Drake,  after  writing  some 
stanzas  and  getting  the  proof  from  the  printer,  laid  his 
cheek  down  upon  the  lines  he  had  written,  and,  looking 
at  his  fellow-poet  with  beaming  eyes,  said,  "  O,  Hal 
leck,  isn't  this  happiness  !  " 

Of  this  series  of  satirical  and  quaint  chronicles  of 
New- York  life  nearly  half  a  century  ago,  which  were 
then  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  one  writer,  Halleck, 
in  1866,  said  "that  they  were  good-natured  verses  con 
tributed  anonymously  to  the  columns  of  the  New-York 
Evening  Post,  from  March  to  June,  1819,  and  occa 
sionally  afterward."  The  writers  continued,  like  the 
author  of  Junius,  the  sole  depositaries  of  their  own 
secret,  and  apparently  wished,  with  the  minstrel  in 
Leyden's  "  Scenes  of  Infancy,"  to 

"  Save  others'  names,  but  leave  their  own  unsung." 

"  The  Croakers  "  were  collected  and  published  in  a 
small  volume  of  thirty-six  pages,  in  the  year  1819,  and 
in  1860  the  Bradford  Club  of  New  York  issued  an 
edition  to  which  the  poet  briefly  refers  in  the  following 
letter : 

[TO  JAMES  GRANT  WILSON.] 

GUILFORD,  Jan.  28,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR :  I  take  great  pleasure  in  thanking 
you  for  your  kind  letter  and  for  the  curious  relic  of  an- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  22I 

tiquity  sent  you  by  Mr.  Layard  from  Nineveh.  The 
lines  in  the  first  column  remind  me  of  one  of  the  Jaco 
bite  songs  of  our  own  bonny  Scotland,  with  her  home 
"  music  in  its  step,"  and  her  hearty  loyalty  in  its  two 
fold  meaning.  Those  on  the  second  column  are  evi 
dently  some  centuries  older.  They  were  probably 
written  by  Jonah  in  his  boyhood,  before  he  "  took  a 
berth  before  the  mast,  and  o'er  the  sea."  I  leave  you 
to  guess  from  whom  I  quote. 

I  am  highly  nattered  by  your  expressed  wish  for 
the  volume  you  name,  but  I  cannot  regret  having  put 
it  out  of  my  power  to  present  you  with  it.  I  have  not 
been  willing  to  send  it,  for  fear  of  your  finding  old  and 
new  errors  innumerable,  which  it  is  now  too  late  to 
correct,  and  which  if  corrected  would  but  leave  the 
"  original  sins"  less  excusable. 

I  am  very  grateful  to  the  lady  for  the  courtesy  of 
her  remembrance  of  my  lines  and  of  her  willingness  to 
preserve  them.  But  in  their  place  I  beg  her  to  accept 
the  enclosed  for  the  same  good  reason  that  Captain 
Dalgetty  gave  for  robbing  the  Marquis  of  Argyle  of  his 
pistols;  namely,  "  they  are  better  than  my  own."  I 
found  them  by  accident  in  a  lady's  album,  and  got 
them  by  heart  at  a  first  reading — an  infallible  test  of 
their  goodness.  Pray  present  my  compliments  to  Miss 

S ,  and  ask  her  if  the  inevitable  destiny  of  woman, 

that  of  "falling  in  love,"  sooner  or  later,  has  ever  been 
more  beautifully  expressed  than  in  the  last  two  lines. 


222  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Hoping  that  the  "foul  fiend"  you  so  eloquently 
describe  and  detest  has  left  you,  and  that  you  have  re 
covered  your  usual  "  firm  step  "  and  "  erect  bearing  " 
in  spite  of  India-rubbers  and  slippery  pavements,  I  beg 
you  to  believe  me,  my  dear  sir, 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

The  allusion  in  the  first  paragraph  of  the  foregoing 
letter  is  to  an  old  New- York  newspaper  of  1823,  which 
I  had  forwarded  to  him,  containing  one  of  his  awn 
poems.  The  lines  which  Mr.  Halleck  enclosed  were 
as  follows : 

I  ask  not  for  thee,  dearest,  the  weary  crown  of  fame, 
Earth  boasts  no  nobler  title  than  thy  loved  and  gentle  name. 
I  would  not  that  thy  goodness  should  dim  in  fortune's  glare, 
Or  thy  flowers  of  beauty  wither  in  the  world's  imprisoned  air. 
But  around  thy  pathway  ever  my  kindly  spirits  throng, 
And  thy  soul  ne'er  vainly  listen  for  an  echo  to  her  song  ; 
And  when  affection's  vine  shall  shoot,  around  its  elm  to  twine, 
Oh !   mayst  thou  find  as  fond  a  heart  and  true  a  love  as  mine. 

Mr.  Halleck,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  his  friend 
and  colleague  in  the  counting-room  of  Jacob  Barker, 
writes  as  follows  of  the  Bradford  Club  edition  of  "The 
Croakers  "  : 

[TO   BENJAMIN   R.    WINTHROP.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  zgtk  Dec.,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  *  *  *  I  have,  in  compliance 
with  your  wish,  although  with  a  reluctance  that  I  know 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  22$ 

you  will  kindly  and  considerately  appreciate,  pencilled, 
for  your  own  (for  the  present)  exclusive  information, 
on  the  table  of  contents,  the  authorship  requested, 
with,  I  think,  sufficient  accuracy,  omitting,  of  course, 
many  variations  made  at  each  other's  suggestions  in 
each  other's  manuscripts,  of  no  great  importance. 

With  regard  to  the  notes,  in  the  compiling  of 
which,  as  in  the  collecting  together  and  publishing 
for  private  distribution  the  Rhymes,  you  are  aware,  I 
was  not  consulted.  I  have  looked  over  but  the  first 
leaf,  and  find  so  many  errors,  trivial  and  otherwise, 
that  I  have  sadly  and  carefully  refrained  from  throwing 
a  single  glance  over  the  remaining  leaves.  The  errors 
are  all,  I  feel  assured,  unintentional  and  in  good  faith, 
and  could  not  have  been  avoided  without  a  knowledge 
of  facts,  etc.,  to  be  derived  only  from  myself,  or  from 
sources  inaccessible  to  the  compilers.  I  hope  and 
trust  that,  like  the  verses,  they  may  do  no  harm  to 
any  one  reading  them  or  named  in  them,  and  may, 
like  the  poet  Cowper's  cup  of  tea,  "  cheer  but  not 
inebriate." 

In  a  letter  to  our  friend  Mr.  Moreau,  declining  to 
grant  his  request  in  relation  to  the  authorship,  I 
claimed  the  right  to  assume  solely  and  sacredly  the 
responsibility  for  all  the  imperfections  and  imputations 
contained  in  the  Rhymes,  upon  the  sound  principle 
that  in  a  mercantile  partnership  the  surviving  partner 
is  correctly  and  conscientiously  always  liable  for  the 


224  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

outstanding  debts  of  the  firm,  a  right  which,  allow  me 
to  say,  I  continue  to  claim  under  all  circumstances. 

Hoping  that  my  best  good  wishes  of  the  season 
may,  with  the  coming  New  Year,  find  you,  as  usual, 
healthy,  wealthy,  and  wise, 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  very  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Since  the  death  of  Mr.  Halleck,  "  The  Croakers" 
have  been  included  in  the  new  edition  of  his  poems, 
and  among  them  will  be  found  several  hitherto  unpub 
lished  pieces  from  his  pen.  In  lieu  of  the  original 
signatures,  the  author  of  each  poem  is  for  the  first 
time  made  known  by  the  letters  H.  and  D.  ;  when 
both  letters  occur,  they  indicate  the  joint  authorship 
of  the  literary  partners,  or,  to  quote  Halleck's  familiar 
words  to  me,  "  that  we  each  had  a  finger  in  the  pie." 

Whoever  would  desire  to  learn  something  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  city  and  State,  and  of  the  social, 
scientific,  and  political  events  of  a  decade  so  interesting 
as  that  of  i8i9~'29  in  New- York  history,  cannot  but  be 
enlightened,  as  well  as  greatly  amused,  by  a  perusal  of 
these  papers  from  the  pens  of  two  such  well-informed 
and  witty  men  as  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  and  Joseph 
Rodman  Drake.  I  trust,  however,  that  no  one  will 
understand  me  as  meaning  that  there  is  any  matter 
interposed  in  the  shape  of  precis  upon  the  affairs  of 
that  day,  or  that  either  of  the  young  poets  was  ac- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  22$ 

quainted  with  the  arcana  imperil  of  that  interesting 
era.     Such  was  not  the  case. 

"  The  American  Flag,"  written  by  Drake  between 
the  2oth  and  the  2$th  day  of  May,  1819,  originally 
concluded  with  the  following  lines  : 

"  As  fixed  as  yonder  orb  divine, 

That  saw  thy  bannered  blaze  unfurled, 
Shall  thy  proud  stars  resplendent  shine, 
The  guard  and  glory  of  the  world." 

These  not  satisfying  their  author,  he  said,  "  Fitz, 
can't  you  suggest  a  better  stanza  ?  "  Whereupon  Hal- 
leek  sat  down  and  wrote,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
the  lines,  which  Drake  immediately  accepted  and  in 
corporated  in  his,  perhaps,  most  popular  poem  : 

"  Forever  float  that  standard  sheet ! 
Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us  ? 
With  freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet, 
And  freedom's  banner  streaming  o'er  us  ?  " 

When  "The  American  Flag"  was  first  published 
in  the  Evening  Post  on  the  29th  of  May,  it  was 
introduced  by  Mr.  Coleman  with  the  following  re 
marks  :  "Sir  Philip  Sidney  said,  as  Addison  tells  us, 
that  he  never  could  read  the  old  ballad  of  '  Chevy 
Chase '  without  feeling  his  heart  beat  within  him  as  at 
the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  The  following  lines,  which 
are  to  be  ranked  among  the  highest  inspirations  of  the 
10* 


226  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Muse,  will  suggest  similar  associations  in  the  breast  of 
the  gallant  American  officer." 

Another  of  the  literary  recreations  of  the  young 
poets  "  in  those  happy  days  when  we  only  lived  to 
laugh,"  as  Halleck  said  to  a  friend,  was  the  composi 
tion  of  sermons,  in  answer  to  the  Calvinistic  discourses 
of  Dr.  Cox,  then  attaining  considerable  reputation  as 
an  eloquent  and  promising  divine.  These  sermons 
were  delivered  to  a  less  numerous  if  not  a  less  appre 
ciative  audience,  which  usually  consisted  of  DeKay  and 
Langstaff.  Unfortunately,  the  material  that  might 
have  made  a  very  good-sized  volume,  to  be  entitled 
"  Halleck's  and  Drake's  Sermons,"  was  not  preserved. 
Alas  that  the^y  should  be  lost  to  an  admiring  pos 
terity  ! 

Halleck  had  many  anecdotes  to  tell  of  old  Major 
Fairlie  and  his  accomplished  daughters,  Mary,  Louisa, 
and  Julia.  Mary,  the  eldest,  became  the  wife  of  the 
eminent  tragedian  Cooper,  the  same  whom  the  poet 
saw  when  he  visited  for  the  first  time  the  Park  Theatre 
in  September,  1808.  The  young  ladies  were  all  cele 
brated  no  less  for  beauty  and  charming  manners  than 
for  their  wit  and  vivacity.  In  one  of  Mr.  Irving's  let 
ters,  Mary,  who  was  the  "  Sophy  Sparkle"  of  "  Sal 
magundi,"  is  styled  the  "  fascinating  Fairlie;"  while 
Mr.  Halleck,  who  most  admired  Louisa,  more  than 
once,  in  speaking  to  the  writer  of  the  "  Three  Graces," 
as  he  described  them,  said,  "Ah!  you  should  have 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  227 

known  Louisa  Fairlie."  Soon  after  the  return  from 
Europe  of  John  Slidell,  the  late  Confederate  commis 
sioner,  whose  father  was  then  a  worthy  soap-boiler,  as 
well  as  the  President  of  a  New-York  bank,  Miss  Louisa 
met  him  at  an  evening  party,  where  he  was  strutting 
about  in  a  very  lofty  and  pompous  manner,  interlard 
ing  his  remarks  with  constant  allusions  to  "When 
I  was  in  Paris,"  "  During  my  visit  to  Rome,"  etc.,  etc. 
In  a  conversation  which  he  held  with  the  witty  Louisa, 
he  remarked,  "When  I  was  in  Greece."  "  By  the 
the  way,"  said  the  sarcastic  girl,  interrupting  him, 
"  you  must  have  felt  very  much  at  home  there,  Mr. 
Slidell ! "  Poor  John  made  no  further  allusion  that 
evening  to  his  European  travels,  and  soon  after  disap 
peared  from  the  party,  as  he  did  a  few  years  later  from 
the  city. 

Another  story  was   of  a  certain   aristocratic   Mr. 

P ,  who  was  the  son  of  a  retired  saddler.     He,  like 

Slidell,  had  been  abroad,  and,  like  the  soap-boiler's 
son,  he  had  a  great  horror  of  hearing  any  allusion  to 
his  origin  or  to  his  father's  former  business.  Strutting 
about  in  his  pretentious  manner  at  an  evening  party, 
he  addressed  Miss  Louisa  on  some  subject  connected 
with  his  foreign  tour,  in  which  he  unfortunately  made 
a  misstatement,  when  she  interrupted  by  saying,  "  Par 
don  me,  Mr.  P ,  but  I  think  you  have  put  the  saddle 

on  the  wrong  horse,"  when  she  passed  on,  leaving  the 
discomfited  saddler's  son  in  a  state  of  collapse. 


228  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

To  about  this  same  period  of  time  belongs  the  fol 
lowing.  The  poet's  friend,  Charles  P.  Clinch,  having 
lost  a  favorite  young  dog,  who  answered  to  the  name 
of  Fitz,  and  advertised  in  the  papers  a  reward  of  five 
dollars  to  whoever  would  return  him,  the  next  day 
received  a  note  from  Halleck,  stating  that  he  knew 
nothing  about  the  dog  in  question,  and  added,  "  I, 
however,  know  another  puppy  answering  to  that  name, 
who  will  come  to  you  for  half  the  money  !  "  "  Fitz" 
was  the  only  title  by  which  Halleck  was  then  known 
among  his  cronies,  Clinch,  DeKay,  Drake,  and  Lang- 
staff. 

In  a  small  London  edition,  published  in  1803,  of 
Coleridge's  poems,  Halleck  wrote  in  pencil  a  brief  note 
to  sonnet  xv.,  and,  on  the  fly-leaf  of  the  same  little 
book,  a  few  stanzas,  only  a  portion  of  which  are  now 
legible,  of  the  song,  "To  the  Horseboat,"  introduced 
in  "  Fanny."  The  sonnet  is  as  follows  : 

"  Schiller  !  that  hour  I  would  have  wished  to  die, 
If  through  the  shuddering  midnight  I  had  sent 
From  the  dark  dungeon  of  the  tower  time-rent 

That  fearful  voice,  a  banished  father's  l  cry — 

That  in  no  after-moment  aught  less  vast 

Might  stamp  me  mortal !  a  triumphant  shout 
Black  Horror  screamed,  and  all  her  goblin  rout 

From  the  more  withering  scene  diminished  past. 

Ah !  bard  tremendous  in  sublimity  ! 

1  The  father  of  Moor,  in  the  play  of  "  The  Robbers." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  229 

Could  I  behold  thee  in  thy  loftier  mood, 
Wandering  at  eve  with  finely  frenzied  eye,     *     * 

Beneath  some  vast  old  tempest-swinging  wood  ! 

Awhile  with  mute  o'er-gazing  I  would  brood, 
Then  weep  aloud  in  a  wild  ecstasy  !      *     *  " 

Halleck's  comments  are  :  "  Schiller,  it  is  said, 
always  composed  his  tragedies  at  night,  under  the 
inspiration  of  three  bottles  of  champagne  :  Coleridge, 
I  understand,  prefers  brandy.  To  see  either  of  them 
in  their  inspired  moments  would  be  more  likely  to 
make  one  laugh  aloud  than  '  weep  aloud.'  " 

The  poet's  lines,  already  referred  to,  are  evidently 
the  original  draft  of  the  song,  and  are,  as  far  as  they 
can  be  deciphered,  as  follows  : 

Away  with  the  wave  to  the  home  we  are  seeking, 
Bark  of  my  hope  !  ere  the  evening  be  gone ; 

There's  a  wild,  wild  note  in  the  curlew's  shrieking, 
There's  a  whisper  of  death  in  the  wind's  low  moan. 

Though  blue  and  bright  are  the  heavens  above  me, 
And  the  stars  are  asleep  in  the  quiet  sea, 

And  hearts  that  I  love,  and  hearts  that  love  me, 
Are  beating  beside  me  merrily  : 

Yet  far  in  the  west,  where  the  day's  faint  roses, 
Touched  by  the  moonbeam,  are  withering  fast, 

And  the  half-seen  spirit  of  twilight  reposes, 
Hymning  the  dirge  of  the  hours  that  are  past. 


230  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

There,  where  the  ocean-wave  sparkles  at  meeting — 
So  young  fancy  tells  us — the  kiss  of  the  sky, 

On  his  dark  cloud  is  the  infant  storm  sitting, 
And  beneath  the  horizon  his  lightnings  are  nigh. 

On  the  nth  of  October  the  poet  writes  to  Miss 
Halleck  from  Bloomingdale :  "  The  alarm  about  the 
fever  has  almost  entirely  subsided.  There  are  few 
cases,  and  the  citizens  generally  would  have  long  since 
returned  back  to  their  original  places  of  abode  but  for 
the  interdiction  of  the  Corporation.  I  imagine  that 
the  interdiction  will  not  be  taken  off  before  the  frosts 
of  November.  At  any  rate,  it  is  probable  that  I  shall 
continue  at  Bloomingdale  till  that  time.  *  *  * 

"  DeKay  appears  in  very  good  health  and  spirits. 
He  seemed  beside  himself  at  the  sight  of  me,  and  em 
braced  me  a  la  Frangais,  by  kissing  each  cheek,  in 
the  middle  of  the  street,  to  the  great  admiration  and 
amusement  of  the  populace.  He  will  establish  him 
self  in  New  York,  and  I  anticipate  much  pleasure  in 
his  society." 

"  Fanny,"  Halleck's  longest  poem,  and  one  which 
was  the  perpetual  delight  of  John  Randolph  of  Roan- 
oke,  was  published  anonymously  in  December,  1819, 
and,  though  suggested  by  the  current  topics,  incidents, 
and  public  men  of  that  day,  still  retains  to  a  remark 
able  degree  the  popularity  which  it  at  once  acquired 
on  its  first  appearance.  The  motto  from  Milton,  pre- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  231 

fixed  to  this  serio-comic  poem  of  nearly  fifteen  hun 
dred  lines,  was  the  feature  of  it  on  which  the  author 
chiefly  prided  himself : 

"A  fairy  vision 

Of  some  gay  creature  of  the  element 
That  in  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  live 
And  play  in  the  plighted  clouds." 

"  Fanny"  was  begun  during  the  summer  and  was 
completed  in  the  autumn  of  1819,  while  the  poet  was 
residing  at  Bloomingdale.  It  contains  many  exquisite 
passages,  such  as  the  description  of  Weehawken — the 
poet's  favorite  haunt  near  Hoboken,  which  he  styled 
his  "country-seat" — never  surpassed  by  their  author. 
It  has  frequently  been  called  a  parody  or  imitation  of 
"  Don  Juan,"  but  Mr.  Halleck  assured  me  that  it  was 
written  before  he  saw  Lord  Byron's  poem,  published 
the  same  year.  He  adopted  the  versification  of 
"  Beppo,"  one  of  Byron's  minor  poems,  to  which 
neither  the  story  of  "  Fanny"  nor  "  Don  Juan"  bears 
the  slightest  resemblance. 

From  a  letter  to  his  sister,  dated  Sandy  Hill, 
January  ist,  1820,  I  take  the  following  allusions  to 
"Fanny":  "To  render  my  solitary  hours  less  irk 
some,  I  have  spun  out  the  poem  which  I  repeated  to 
you  last  summer  into  a  book  of  fifty  pages,  which  was 
published  in  New  York  last  month.  I  had  no  inten 
tion  of  publishing  it,  but  the  bookseller  who  brought  out 


232  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

living's  '  Sketch-Book '  offering  to  publish  '  Fanny '  in  a 
style  similar  to  that  work,  I  consented  to  his  doing  so. 
I  have,  of  course,  heard  nothing  of  its  fate  since  I  left 
New  York,  but,  as  the  publisher  seemed  very  sanguine 
in  his  expectation  of  its  popularity,  I  hope,  for  his 
sake,  as  well  as  my  own  pride,  though  the  author  is 
unknown,  that  he  will  not  be  disappointed.  He  is 
binding  a  copy  for  you,  which  I  shall  forward  imme 
diately  on  my  return.  For  my  own  part,  I  do  not 
think  much  of  the  merits  of  the  work,  the  plague  of 
correcting  the  proof-sheets,  etc.,  having  put  me  out  of 
conceit  with  it,  and  I  fear  that  its  localities  will  render 
it  almost  entirely  uninteresting  to  you.  The  book 
seller  stated  to  me  that  I  was  the  only  writer  in 
America,  Irving  excepted,  whose  works  he  would  risk 
publishing.  This  opinion  was  founded,  of  course, 
upon  the  popularity  of  '  The  Croakers.'  I  do  not 
anticipate  the  same  popularity  for  this  work.  '  The 
Croakers'  cost  the  public  nothing,  this  costs  them 
fifty  cents,  which  will  have,  no  doubt,  an  effect  in 
limiting  the  number  of  readers.  I  am  anxious,  as  you 
may  well  suppose,  to  learn  how  it  succeeds,  but  shall 
not  have  it  in  my  power  to  ascertain  it  till  my  return. 
To-day  begins  another^year,  and,  in  conformity  to 
ancient  usage,  I  wish  you  happiness.  Were  it,  how 
ever,  in  my  power  to  insure  you  happiness,  I  would 
not  confine  the  wish  to  the  first  day  of  each  year. 
Adieu." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  233 

A  few  weeks  after  the  publication  by  Mr.  Wiley  of 
"  Fanny,"  the  author  visited  Albany  on  business  for 
Mr.  Barker,  and,  while  seated  one  evening  in  the 
public  room  of  the  principal  hotel,  Governor  Lewis 
entered,  saying,  "  Here's  a  glorious  satirical  poem  that 
I  wish  to  read,"  which  he  immediately  did,  to  the 
great  delight  of  the  large  concourse  of  gentlemen  pres 
ent,  and  to  the  no  small  confusion  of  the  anonymous 
and  modest  young  author,  who  was  compelled  to  join 
in  the  laugh  over  his  own  lines.  In  an  undated  letter 
to  Miss  Halleck,  the  poet  refers  to  this  scene.  "It 
was,"  he  says,  alluding  to  "  Fanny,"  "all  the  rage  in 
Albany  while  I  was  there,  and  I  was  amused  by  hearing 
Governor  Lewis  read  it  to  a  large  group  of  great  men 
at  the  hotel  where  I  stayed.  I  will  do  him  the  justice 
to  say  he  was  the  best  reader  I  ever  heard,  and  ought 
to  be  made  schoolmaster-general.  I  laughed  with  the 
rest,  as  in  duty  bound,  till  a  Mr.  Livingston,  a  senator 
with  whom  I  was  acquainted,  came  in.  He  believed 
me  to  be  ( Croaker,'  and  had  heard  that  'Fanny' 
was  by  the  same  pen.  I  observed  him  whisper  to  his 
neighbor,  whose  eye  was  then  turned  upon  me,  and  I 
thought  best  to  beat  a  retreat.  On  my  entering  the 
supper-room  I  was  honored  with  the  general  stare  of 
every  eye,  and  seemed  to  attract  as  much  admiration 
as  a  Hottentot  Venus.  I  left  Albany  next  morning. 
Since  my  return  I  have  hardly  walked  out  at  all,  but 
am  informed  that  among  the  nobility  I  am  to  be 


234  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

pointed  out  as  the  lion  of  the  winter.     It  will  not  last 
long.     Every  dog  has  his  day." 

The  popularity  of  "  Fanny"  was  so  great,  that  the 
publisher  offered  Halleck  five  hundred  dollars  for 
another  canto,  an  offer  which  he  accepted,  and  in 
1821  a  second  edition  appeared,  enlarged  by  the  addi 
tion  of  fifty  stanzas.  Before  its  appearance,  the  poem 
had  become  so  scarce  that  it  sold  for  fabulous  prices — 
ten  dollars  having  been  frequently  paid  for  a  copy  of 
the  thin  pamphlet  of  forty-nine  pages,  originally  pub 
lished  at  fifty  cents.  Its  authorship  was  attributed  to 
a  number  of  prominent  literary  men,  but,  except  in  a 
.  few  instances,  suspicion  never  rested  upon  Mr.  Halleck, 
who  quietly  enjoyed  the  bewilderment  of  the  town, 
only  sharing  his  secret  with  DeKay,  Drake,  Langstaff, 
and  a  few  other  faithful  friends.  Henry  Brevoort,  the 
friend  of  Washington  Irving,  said  that  he  would  feel 
prouder  of  being  the  author  of  "  Fanny"  than  of  any 
other  poetical  work  ever  written  in  America. 

"  Fanny,"  like  "  The  Croakers,"  had  its  imitators. 
At  the  close  of  1820,  and  before  the  second  edition  had 
been  issued,  a  small  pamphlet  was  published  in  New 
York,  entitled  "Fanny  Continued."  Mr.  Halleck 
told  me  that  its  author  was  unknown  to  him,  but  that 
it  had  been  attributed  to  Isaac  Starr  Clason,  who 
wrote  a  continuation  to  "  Don  Juan."  In  addition  to 
the  two  cantos  of  "  Don  Juan,"  Mr.  Clason  wrote,  in 
1826,  "  Horace  in  New  York,"  evidently  an  imitation 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2$$ 

of  "  Horace  in  London,"  the  work  of  the  brothers 
Smith,  authors  of  the  "Rejected  Addresses,"  in  which 
he  celebrates  Madame  Malibran,  then  in  the  ascendant 
in  opera,  Halleck,  Dr.  Mitchill,  and  other  leading  men 
and  topics  of  the  day.  In  1834,  poor  Clason,  the  son 
of  a  wealthy  New-York  merchant,  a  man  of  fine  educa 
tion  and  brilliant  talents,  after  a  life  of  dissipation, 
closed  his  sad  career  by  suicide.  Sealing  the  room  in 
which  he  lodged  in  London  against  the  admission  of  air, 
he  lighted  a  fire  of  charcoal,  and,  in  company  with  his 
mistress,  perished. 

[TO    MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Feb.  7,  1820. 

MY  DEAR  MARIA  :  I  wrote  you  about  ten  days 
ago,  informing  you  of  my  having  sent  the  books  I  had 
previously  written  you  about,  to  Harvey  Spencer,  to  be 
by  him  forwarded  to  you  per  first  vessel.  Since  then 
I  have  not  heard  from  you,  nor  do  I  know  whether  he 
has  had  an  opportunity  of  sending  them,  but  trust 
they  will  reach  you  ere  long.  I  have  confined  myself 
almost  exclusively  to  my  room  for  the  last  fortnight,  in 
order  to  benefit  by  a  course  of  dieting,  etc.,  which  I 
have  commenced,  and  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  I 
am  getting  gradually  better.  My  deafness  has  lately 
been  accompanied  with  a  dizziness  and  a  constant  pain 
in  the  head,  which  induced  a  belief  that  the  applica 
tions  made  by  my  quack  doctor  would  not  avail  me. 
He  has  been  uniformly  successful  in  curing  that  deaf- 


236  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

ness  which  arises  from  an  obstruction  in  the  organs  of 
hearing,  but  my  complaints  are  of  a  complicated  na 
ture,  proceeding  from  a  derangement  of  the  system 
generally,  and  the  system,  of  course,  must  be  put  in 
tone  before  any  relief  can  be  obtained.  I  have  been 
miserably  low-spirited  about  myself,  but  now  begin 
to  be  a  little  more  encouraged.  You  must  pardon 
so  many  technicalities,  but  my  head  is  full  of  these 
apothecary  phrases,  and  I  must  write  about  them,  of 
course.  *  *  * 

The  popularity  of  "  Fanny"  is  far  above  my  expec 
tations,  and  certainly  far  above  its  merits ;  but  the 
great  secret  is,  that  it  is  fashionable  to  admire  it,  and, 
fortunately  for  its  author,  the  general  class  of  readers 
does  not  know  good  from  bad.  I  have  felt  flattered 
only  in  one  instance.  A  person  who  could  have  no 
motive  in  deceiving  me  says  that  Brevoort  told  him 
that  he  should  be  prouder  of  being  the  author  of 
"  Fanny  "  than  of  any  poetical  work  ever  written  in 
America.  Brevoort  was  one  of  the  original  "  Salma 
gundi  "  concern,  and  has  deservedly  the  character  of  a 
man  of  extensive  literary  taste  and  knowledge.  From 
.him,  therefore,  a  compliment  is  worth  having.  *  *  * 
Yours  affectionately, 

GREENE. 

[TO   THE   SAME.] 

*  *  *  A  Mr.  Prescott,  of  Boston,  editor  of  the  Club- 
Room,  a  periodical  work  published  there,  has  written  me 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  337 

a  letter,  in  which,  after  comparing  me  with  Lord  Byron, 
he  solicits  some  poetry  for  his  said  Club-Room.  Two 
numbers  only  have  been  yet  issued.  Its  plan  is  similar 
to  that  of  the  Sketch-Book.  He  has  inserted  no  poetry 
in  it  yet.  Much  has  been  offered  him,  but  it  seems 
there  is  no  writer  in  America,  except  the"  author  of 
"  Fanny,"  whose  poetry  has  sufficient  merit  to  entitle 
it  to  a  place  in  his  work.  This  is  what  one  may  call 
the  puff  direct.  Besides  this,  I  have  some  dozen  com 
plimentary  letters  from  different  parts  of  the  Union, 
with  which  I  should  have  been  better  pleased  had  the 
writers  paid  the  postage.  Among  the  rest,  one  from 
your  old  acquaintance,  Mr.  Pitt,  dated  somewhere  in 
Maryland.  He  says  he  has  heard  of  "  Fanny,"  en 
deavored  in  vain  to  procure  it  at  the  southward,  all  the 
copies  in  that  quarter  being  sold,  and  relies  on  my 
politeness  to  send  him  a  copy.  I  admire  the  sin 
gularity  of  such  a  request,  and  shall  send  him  one  if  I 
can  fix  my  thoughts  upon  the  subject  long  enough. 
On  the  whole,  "  Fanny  "  has  met  with  a  much  better 
reception  than  she  deserved,  and,  so  far  as  local  ap 
plause  goes,  I  am  satisfied.  Some  very  pretty  lines 
were  addressed  to  me  in  a  Philadelphia  paper.  They 
were  copied  into  several  newspapers  here,  and  yon 
probably  have  seen  tljem.  They  were  signed  "  Rob 
Raven."  If  you  have  not  read  them,  I  will  copy  and 
forward  them  to  you  in  my  next. 

We  heard  from  Drake  yesterday.     He  was  on  the 


2^8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

7th  of  March  within  about  a  week's  journey  of  New 
Orleans,  his  health  much  improved.  He  will  probably 
return  in  May.  DeKay  is  well,  and  as  usual.  A  friend 
of  his,  Mr.  Terrill,  from  Kentucky,  a  nephew  of  Jeffer 
son,  and  a  very  fine  fellow,  has  lately  returned  from 
Europe.  I  became  acquainted  with  him  during  the 
few  days  he  remained  here,  on  his  way  to  Kentucky, 
and  we  were  (as  the  man  says  in  the  play)  well  pleased 
with  each  other.  He  was  intimate  with  Lord  Byron, 
and  spent  a  month  with  him  at  his  house  in  Venice. 
In  my  next  I  will  tell  you  all  about  him. 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

GREENE. 

Mr.  Prescott's  communication,  referred  to  in  the 
foregoing  letter,  was  as  follows  : 

"BOSTON,  March  15,  1820. 

"  The  author  of  '  Fanny '  will  be  somewhat  sur 
prised  at  this  abrupt  communication  from  an  unknown 
correspondent.  I  take  the  liberty  of  sending  him  the 
last  number  of  the  Club-Room,  a  paper  lately  set  on  foot 
by  a  knot  of  gentlemen  in  this  town,  most  of  whom  are 
habitual  contributors  to  the  North  American  Review, 
which  you  have  probably  met  with.  We  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  meeting  together  for  social  and  literary 
purposes  once  a  fortnight,  and  as  it  was  thought  it 
would  be  a  good  exercise  for  us,  if  not  for  the  time,  to 
give  vent  to  some  of  our  speculations,  we  have  adopted 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  239 

this  form  to  do  it  in,  and  we  make  our  paper  a  mis 
cellaneous  budget  of  light  and  serious  matter,  in  prose 
and  poetry,  as  may  be  convenient. 

"  Your  pieces,  if,  as  I  suppose,  you  are  the  author 
of  those  signed  '  Croaker,'  have  been  read  in  the  news 
papers  with  great  interest,  but  '  Fanny  '  is  of  a  higher 
order,  and  for  its  easy  conversational  wit,  and  poetry 
of  descriptions,  must  go  alongside  of  Lord  Byron's  and 
Mr.  Rose's  productions  in  the  same  way.  It  is  the  ad 
miration  of  your  poetical  talents  which  has  led  me  to 
make  this  communication  to  you,  and  to  request,  if  you 
feel  inclined  to  give  your  pieces  a  circulation  among 
your  Eastern  brethren,  you  would  sometimes  select  the 
Club-Room  as  the  medium  of  communication.  I  find 
no  difficulty  as  the  editor  in  obtaining  compositions  in 
prose,  but  it  is  otherwise  in  poetry,  which,  as  it  is  not 
necessary  to  publish,  we  feel  unwilling  to  publish  unless 
it  is  particularly  good,  and  I  know  of  no  source  from 
which  I  could  be  so  likely  to  obtain  this  as  from  the 
author  of  '  Fanny.' 

"  I  hope  you  will  not  consider  this  communication 
as  impertinent  on  my  part,  as  I  am  perfectly  aware  that' 
a  refusal  to  comply  with  it  would  be  very  reasonable 
and  is  to  be  expected,  but  I  am  willing  to  make  it  even 
upon  an  improbable  chance  of  success. 

"  I  am,  sir,  with  great  respect, 

"Your  very  obedient  servant, 

"  WAI.  H.  PRESCOTT. 

"  To  the  author  of  '  Fanny.'  " 


240  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  Fanny  "  was  reprinted  in  several  editions,  until 
it  was  at  length  incorporated  in  a  volume  together  with 
his  other  poetical  writings.  In  1866,  William  Loring 
Andrews,  a  young  New-York  merchant,  and  an  ardent 
admirer  of  Mr.  Halleck's  poetry,  published  a  sumptu 
ously-printed  edition  of  seventy  copies,  the  interest  and 
value  of  which  were  further  enhanced  by  a  fine  portrait 
of  the  author,  with  full  and  very  complete  notes  to  the 
poem,  prepared  by  Mr.  Halleck. 

When  in  Europe,  in  1822,  Halleck  entered  a  book 
store  in  Glasgow,  and,  inquiring  if  there  was  any  thing 
new  in  the  way  of  poetry,  the  young  author  was  sur 
prised  by  receiving  from  the  bookseller's  hands  a  re 
print  of  "  Fanny,"  accompanied  by  the  remark,  that  it 
was  "  just  published,  a  capital  poem,  and  destined  to 
be  quite  popular."  The  identical  and  much-prized 
broctmre  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Sidney  Web 
ster,  a  daughter  of  Hamilton  Fish,  of  New  York.  Forty 
years  later,  a  wandering  lawyer  of  Baltimore,  travelling 
in  Australia,  found  in  a  miner's  hut  in  the  interior  of 
the  country  a  copy  of  this  beautiful  poem,  which  meets 
the  Horatian  standard  of  charming  on  a  tenth  perusal. 

A  writer  in  Eraser's  Magazine  said,  in  1850,  of 
"Fanny:  "  "Among  all  the  personages  enumerated 
we  can  find  but  two  names  that  a  European  reader 
would  be  likely  to  know  any  thing  about,  Clinton  and 
Van  Buren.  Nay,  more,  in  the  rapid  growth  and 
change  of  things  American,  the  present  generation  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  241 

New-Yorkers  are  likely  to  lose  sight  of  the  lions  of  their 
immediate  progenitors ;  and,  unless  some  Manhattan 
ese  scholiast  should  write  a  commentary  on  the  poem  in 
time,  its  allusions,  and  with  them  most  of  its  wit,  will 
be  in  danger  of  perishing  entirely."  Fortunately,  this 
was  done  by  the  author  himself  in  1866,  who,  in  that 
year,  prepared  a  series  of  notes,  which  I  cannot  but  re 
gret  that  he  had  not  made  less  brief. 

In  the  summer  of  1820,  Halleck  made  a  short  busi 
ness  trip  to  Canada,  of  which  I  have  only  the  following 
record,  contained  in  a  letter  to  his  sister  dated  York, 
Upper  Canada,  June  I2th.  He  says:  "I  spent  the 
most  part  of  Saturday  at  the  Falls,  and  reached  this 
place,  about  fifty-four  miles  from  Niagara,  yesterday 
afternoon.  I  leave  here  this  morning  for  Kingston,  two 
days'  ride,  from  thence  to  Montreal,  two  days'  more, 
and  from  thence  to  New  York.  I  shall  probably  reach 
there  in  about  a  fortnight.  I  will  write  you  on  the 
way  if  possible,  but,  as  I  travel  flying,  you  must  not 
rely  on  hearing  from  me  till  I  reach  New  York." 

On  the  2  ist  of  September,  1820,  Halleck  was  called 
to  mourn  the  death  of  Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  to  whom 
he  was  deeply  attached,  and  at  whose  bedside  during 
the  summer  he  had  watched  with  more  than  a  brother's 
love.  He  had  gone  with  Mrs.  Drake,  near  the  close  of 
the  previous  year,  to  spend  the  winter  in  the  South, 
and  returned  from  Louisiana  in  the  spring,  fatally 
smitten  with  consumption.  He  died  with  his  faithful 
II 


242  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

friends,  DeKay  and  Halleck,  by  his  side,  and  was 
buried  at  Hunt's  Point,  near  New  York,  where  the 
young  poets  had  passed  so  many  happy  hours  together. 
As  Halleck  returned  from  the  funeral,  he  said  to  DeKay, 
"  There  will  be  less  sunshine  for  me  hereafter,  now  that 
Joe  is  gone  :  "  and  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Halleck,  which  I 
cannot  but  deeply  regret  has  not  been  preserved,  the 
survivor  lamented  in  a  most  touching  and  affecting  man 
ner  the  loss  of  his  heart's  companion.  The  inimitable 
monody  on  his  literary  partner  has  perhaps  never  been 
equalled  for  beauty  and  tenderness,  as  it  has  been  sur 
passed  in  popularity  by  but  few  American  poems.  It 
was  composed  on  the  day  of  his  friend's  death,  and 
was  originally  written  on  a  blank  leaf  of  a  manuscript 
collection  of  Drake's  poems  in  the  possession  of  his 
wife.  Her  friend — and  soon  to  become  her  brother-in- 
law — Doctor  DeKay,  gave  a  copy  of  the  lines  to  the 
editor  of  the  Quarterly  Repository,  in  which  work  they 
first  appeared.  Coleman,  in  selecting  them  from  the 
Repository  for  republication,  took  the  liberty  of  saying 
"  For  the  Evening  Post"  and  also  of  altering  the  first 
line,  substituting  the  word  "  sod  "  for  "  turf ;  "  while 
some  other  editors  inserted  "  grass,"  in  lieu  of  the 
proper  word,  making  the  line  read  "  Green  be  the  sod 
above  thee,"  or  "  Green  be  the  grass  above  thee." 
Said  Halleck  to  Charles  P.  Clinch,  who  pointed  out 
these  editorial  liberties  to  him,  "  I  have  no  doubt  they 
will  yet  make  it,  f  Green  be  thereat  above  thee.'  " 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  243 

Among  the  many  translations  which  have  been 
made  of  this  exquisite  union  of  tenderness  and  sim 
plicity,  is  the  following  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  Adrien 
Rouquette,  of  New  Orleans,  which  Mr.  Halleck  once 
repeated  to  me  with  very  evident  pleasure  : 

Sur  le  tertre  ou  tu  dors  qu'un  vert  gazon  paraisse, 
Ami  du  meilleurs  jours  goutes  dans  ma  jeunesse  ? 
Nul  ne  t'a  bien  connu  s'il  ne  t'a  pas  aime, 
Et  jamafs  sans  eloge  aucun  ne  t'a  nomme. 

Des  yeux,  en  qui  des  pleurs  la  source  etait  tarie, 
Ont  pleure  comme  nous,  a  ton  lit  d'agonie ; 
Et  long  temps,  pres  du  tertre  ou  ton  corps  est  place", 
Des  larmes  couleront  sur  le  gazon  glace. 

Dans  la  sein  de  la  terre,  ah  !  quand  des  cceurs  fideles, 
Des  coeurs  comme  le  tien,  reposent  sans  chaleur, 
Une  guirlande  y  doit,  par  ses  fleurs  immortelles, 
Au  monde  qui  1'ignore  apprendre  leur  valeur ; 

Et  moi  que  m'eveillais,  heureux  chaque  matin, 
Pour  te  prendre  la  main,  la  serrant  dans  la  mienne ; 
Moi  qui  voulus  ma  part  dans  ta  joie  et  ta  peine, 
Dans  les  biens  et  les  maux  partageant  ton  destin  : 

C'est  moi  seul  qui  devrais  tresser  cette  guirlande, 
Pour  en  ceindre  ton  front  sitot  decolore ; 
Mais  deja,  dans  mon  deuil,  en  vain  l'ai-je  essaye, 
Je  sens  qu'en  ce  moment  ma  douleur  est  trop  grande. 


244  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Tant  que  ton  souvenir  est  encor  vif  en  moi, 
La  parole  aussi  bien  que  Tame  est  enchainee ; 
Lorsque  Ton  pleure  un  homme,  un  ami  tel  que  toi, 
Dans  le  coeur  la  tristesse  est  trop  enracinee  ! 


"  This,"  writes  Halleck's  friend  and  admirer,  Miss 
Mitford,  alluding  to  the  lines  on  the  death  of  Drake, 
"  is  a  true  and  manly  record  of  a  true  and  manly  friend 
ship.  There  is  no  doubting  the  sorrow,  honorable 
alike  to  the  departed  and  the  survivor."  Her  closing 
words  have  been  realized,  though  the  love  and  sorrow 
may  not  have  been  expressed  in  equally  touching 
words  :  "  May  he  be  so  loved  and  so  mourned  !  " 

In  the  history  of  literary  partnerships,  I  know  of 
none  more  beautiful  than  that  of  the  sweet  companion 
ship  of  Drake  and  Halleck.  Genius  does  not  readily 
amalgamate;  hence  partnerships  in  the  literary  are 
more  rare  than  they  are  in  the  commercial  world. 
Almost  the  only  parallel  to  the  young  American  poets, 
is  that  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  "  the  rich  concep 
tions  of  whose  twin-like  brains  "  sprang  from  an  equally 
thorough  and  genuine  union  of  congenial  minds.  In 
both  cases  the  poet-partners  had  much 'besides  genius 
in  common.  Contemporary  critics  give  to  Beaumont 
the  credit  of  restraining  the  exuberant  wit  and  fancy 
of  Fletcher;  but  truly,  such  was  tjie  "wondrous  con- 
simility  of  fancy,"  as  Aubrey  calls  it,  between  them, 
that  it  is  utterly,  impossible  to  guess  at  the  share  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  245 

each  of  the  dramatists  in  the  plays  bearing  their  joint 
names,  for  there  is  nothing  to  distinguish  them  in  any 
way  from  those  written  by  Fletcher  after  the  grass  was 
growing  over  his  friend's  grave.  The  sam'e,  I  think, 
may  be  said  of  the  Croakers,  concerning  which  the 
public  were  equally  in  the  dark  respecting  the  source 
from  which  individual  poems  emanated,  even  after  it 
was  well  known  that  they  were  the  handiwork  of  the 
literary  partners  Halleck  and  Drake. 

In  an  appreciative  article  on  the  latter  poet  by 
Jumes  Lawson,  the  writer  says :  "  Drake's  reading 
commenced  early,  and  included  a  wide  range  of  books. 
His  perception  was  rapid  and  his  memory  tenacious. 
He  devoured  all  works  of  imagination.  His  favorite 
poets  were  Shakespeare,  Burns,  and  Campbell.  He 
was  fond  of  discussion  among  his  friends,  and  would 
talk  by  the  hour,  either  side  of  an  argument  affording 
him  equal  opportunity.  The  spirit,  force,  and  at  the 
same  time  simplicity  of  expression,  with  his  artless 
manner,  gained  him  many  friends.  He  had  that  native 
politeness  which  springs  from  benevolence,  which  would 
stop  to  pick  up  the  hat  or  the  crutch  of  an  old  servant, 
or  walk  by  the  side  of  the  horse  of  a  timid  lady.  When 
he  was  lost  to  his  friends,  one  of  them  remarked  that  it 
was  not  so  much  his  social  qualities  which  engaged  the 
affections,  as  a  certain  inner  grace  .or  dignity  of  mind 
of  which  they  were  hardly  conscious  at  the  time. 

"  Free  from  vanity  and  affectation;  he  had  no  mor- 


246  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

bid  seeking  after  popular  applause.  When  he  was  on 
his  death-bed,  at  his  wife's  request  Dr.  DeKay  collected 
and  copied  all  his  poems  which  could  be  found,  and 
took  them'to  him.  '  See,  Joe,'  said  he  to  him,  '  what  I 
have  done.'  '  Burn  them,'  he  replied,  '  they  are  value 
less.'" 

A  fastidious  selection  of  her  father's  poems  was 
made  in  October,  1835,  by  the  poet's  only  child,  Mrs. 
Commodore  DeKay,  who  fitly  dedicated  the  volume  to 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck.  The  poet  was  asked  to  write  a 
memoir  of  Drake,  but  declined.  He  once  remarked  to 
me  in  alluding  to  this  subject :  "  What  could  I  say 
about  a  young  poet  whose  uneventful  career  was  closed 
at  twenty-five  ?  I  should  have  necessarily  been  almost 
as  brief  as  Steevens,  whose  life  of  Shakespeare  was  com 
prised,  as  you  remember,  in  some  half  dozen  lines." 

On  another  occasion,  speaking  of  Drake's  most  ori 
ginal  poem,  and  that  on  which,  as  a  poet,  his  fame 
chiefly  rests— "  The  Culprit  Fay"— Halleck  quoted 
a  line  from  Campbell,  "  Poetry  should  come  to  us  in 
masses  of  ore,  that  require  little  sifting ;  "  and  added  : 
"  This  poem  obeys  this  important  rule.  It  is  compact 
with  imagination." 

Except  the  elegiac  lines  on  the  death  of  Drake  and 
a  few  album  verses,  beginning  "  Within  a  rock  whose 
shadows  linger,"  written  for  Miss  DeKay,  I  am  not 
aware  of  Halleck  having  written  any  thing  during  the 
year  1820,  with  the  exception  of  three  Croakers—"  The 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  247 

Dinner  Party,"  which  is  a  description  of  an  entertain 
ment  at  the  hospitable  mansion  of  John  R.  Livingston ; 
"  The  Tea  Party,"  in  which  the  poet  introduces  as 
dramatis  persona  Mrs.  Drake,  Miss  McCall,  and  Dr. 
DeKay;  and  "The  Great  Moral  Picture,"  being  an 
account  of  Rembrandt  Peale's  celebrated  painting, 
"The  Court  of  Death." 

In  a  letter  to  Miss  Halleck,  dated  March  31,  1821, 
the  poet  says:  "I  have  never  ceased  to  regret  my 
inability  to  accept  Mr.  Eckford's  offer  of  going  to  Peru. 
I  should  have  been  sure  of  the  means  of  subsistence 
for  two  years,  at  least — have  seen  a  delightful  part 
of  the  world,  and  a  very  extensive  one.  The  sea- 
voyage  and  the  change  of  climate  would  have  prob 
ably  restored  my  health,  and,  what  is  better  than  all, 
I  should  have  come  home  richer  at  least  than  when  I 
departed.  However,  there  is  no  help  for  this.  *  *  * 
The  bookseller  had  long  been  bothering  me  for  a  con 
tinuation  of  '  Fanny,'  and  I  at  last  wove  on  fifty  stanzas 
or  so,  and  the  second  edition  has  appeared.  It  sells, 
which  is  saying  the  best  that  can  be  said.  I  shall  send 
you  in  a  day  or  two  four  copies,  one  for  yourself,  one 
for  my  father,  one  for  George  A.  Foote,  and  another 
for  Abraham  S.  Fowler,  which  please  cause  to  be  deliv 
ered  to  them.  Shall  I  send  you  a  trunk  full  of  books 
or  not  ?  When  I  last  saw  you,  you  seemed  indifferent 
about  it.  I  can  pack  and  send  you  such  new  ones  as 
I  have  collected  since  that  time,  at  any  moment  you 


248 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


wish  it.  *  *  *  i  have  not  written  so  long  a  letter 
I  know  not  when,  and  you  are  almost  the  only  per 
son  I  do  write  to,  for  I  have  become  dull,  sa'vage,  and 
solitary,  within  the  last  year." 

Three  months  later,  Mr.  Halleck  visited  the  Valley 
of  Wyoming,  a  pilgrimage  that  for  very  many  years  he 
had  longed  to  make.  On  his  journey  he  chanced  to 
be  the  only  passenger,  and  had  just  lighted  a  fragrant 
cigar,  when  the  stage-coach  stopped,  and  an  elderly 
lady  entered.  The  poet,  always  polite  and  courteous, 
immediately  threw  away  his  fine  Havana,  which 
happened  to  be  his  last,  when,  a  moment  later,  the 
elderly  female  deliberately  drew  forth  a  pipe,  filled, 
lighted,  and  complacently  smoked  her  vile  tobacco 
during  the  remaining  fifteen  miles  of  the  journey. 
"  Sydney  Smith  said  a  certain  kiss  which  he  had  stolen, 
when  a  boy,  from  a  sweet  girl  of  sixteen,  was  the  last 
thing  he  should  think  of  before  he  died.  As  for  me," 
continued  Halleck,  "I  shall  on  my  death-bed  un 
doubtedly  recall  with  horror,  as  I  do  at  the  present 
moment,  that  fearful  pipe  and  its  smoker." 

During  his  sojourn  in  the  lovely  valley  he  composed 
the  delicious  and  spirited  poem  of  "  Wyoming,"  in 
which  the  "  Gertrude  "  of  Campbell  is  at  once  satirized 
and  excelled ;  but  still  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
heroine,  as  Campbell  painted  her,  presents  a  lovelier 
picture  than  in  Halleck's  photograph,  where  she  is 
seen,  sans  hose  and  shoon,  hoeing  corn.  The  original 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  249 

version,  which  differs  slightly  from  the  poem  as  it  now 
appears,  was  enclosed  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Drake  at  the 
time  it  was  written,  June,  1821. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  following  month  Halleck 
"  stood  up,  as  best  man,"  with  Dr.  James  E.  DeKay, 
who  led  to  the  altar  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Drake.  The 
same  day  the  party  of  four,  consisting  of  the  persons 
just  mentioned,  started  for  Canada.  August  2oth,  the 
poet  writes  to  his  father  from  New  York:  " DeKay 
was  married  to  Miss  Eckford  this  day  three  weeks,  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning.  I  accompanied  him,  his 
wife,  and  Mrs.  Drake,  to  Quebec,  from  which  pleasant 
journey  we  have  just  returned."  • 

His  other  poems  produced  during  the  year  1821, 
are  the  lines  to  Walter  Bowne,  "Music,"  "Psalm 
cxxxvii.,"  "The  Rhyme  of  the  Ancient  Coaster," 
written  while  sailing,  •  in  company  with  DeKay,  in  an 
open  boat  on  the  Hudson  River,  between  Stony  Point 
and  the  Highlands,  on  seeing  the  wreck  of  an  old 
sloop ;  and  the  sweet  stanzas  beginning — 

"  The  summer  winds  are  wandering  here," 

which  he  composed  for  a  young  girl  of  fourteen,  while 
spending  a  few  days  in  the  same  hotel  with  her  at  Schoo- 
ley's  Mountain  ;  "  Love;  "  "A  Sketch,"  and  "  In  her 
Island  Home,"  written  in  Miss  Bronson's  album. 

In  a  letter  dated  April  8,  1822,  Mr.  Halleck  says: 
"  I  have  just  recovered  from  another  attack  of  the 


250  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

complaint  in  my  head ;  a  course  of  Dr.  Sangrado's 
prescription,  '  bleeding  and  hot  water,'  has  relieved 
me.  The  poetry  you  asked  for  is  finished,  and,  but 
for  my  illness,  I  should  have  sent  you  the  trunk  filled 
with  new  books  before  this,  but  I  am  so  low-spirited 
when  the  '  dark  hour '  is  on  me,  that  I  can  attend  to 
nothing."  In  another  letter,  of  May  3ist,  also  ad 
dressed  to  Miss  Halleck,  he  says:  "  On  my  arrival  at 
New  Haven  I  learned  that  the  steamboat  had  ceased 
running.  I  therefore  took  the  stage-coach  at  three 
o'clock,  and  reached  here  (New  York)  the  next  morn 
ing  at  six.  *  *  *  The  loss  of  the  steamer  Albion 
has  created  a  great  sensation  here.  One  of  the  pas 
sengers,  Mr.  Delpla,  was  my  intimate  friend.  He  was 
a  fine  young  fellow,  of  literary  taste  and  habits ;  with 
Lefevre  Desnouettes,  one  of  Bonaparte's  generals,  I 
was  also  well  acquainted.  His  nephew,  Mr.  Gravin, 
boarded  in  the  same  house  with  me  some  weeks  pre 
vious  to  his  departure." 

A  letter  to  his  sister,  dated  June  2 5th,  gives  the 
first  intimation  of  the  poet's  projected  European  tour. 
He  says:  "I, received  your  letter  and  package,  and 
should  have  written  you  before  this  but  for  the  uncer 
tainty  in  what  vessel  I  should  sail,  which  was  not 
arranged  till  yesterday.  The  John  Wells  has  changed 
her  voyage,  and  gone  to  Mobile.  I  have  taken  pas 
sage  in  the  packet-ship  Amity,  Captain  Maxwell,  for 
Liverpool.  She  will  sail  on  Monday,  the  1st  of  July. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2$l 

The  John  Wells  will  proceed  from  Mobile  to  Liver 
pool,  and  I  may,  perhaps,  return  in  her." 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  June  30,  1822. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  *  *  *  I  have  left  in  charge 
of  William  Davis,  a  package,  to  be  handed  to  you,  in 
case  any  accident  should  happen  to  prevent  my  return, 
and  DeKay  has  charge  of  my  books,  pictures,  etc., 
which  he  will  send  to  you  in  the  event  of  such  a  state 
of  things.  I  expect  to  return  in  December,  but  per 
sons  must  die  in  Europe  as  in  America,  and  it  is  a 
duty  to  be  prepared  for  the  worst. 

I  have  letters  of  introduction  to  Byron,  Campbell, 
Moore,  Scott,  Southey,  Wordsworth,  and  Washington 
Irving,  now  in  England,  and  to  Lafayette,  Talleyrand, 
and  many  other  great  personages  in  France.1  Whether  I 
shall  deliver  them  or  not  will  depend  upon  circumstances. 

If  you  have  any  thing  to  write  me,  please  send  your 
letters  under  cover  to  Jacob  Barker,  who  will  forward 
them  to  me  wherever  I  may  be.  *  *  *  I  write  this 
in  great  haste  on  Sunday  evening,  being  very  busy,  as 
might  naturally  be  expected,  on  the  eve  of  departure. 
I  shall  write  you  again  to-morrow  from  Sandy  Hook. 
Your  affectionate  brother, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

1  These  letters  of  introduction  were  furnished  to  the  poet  by  his  friends 
Henry  Brevoort,  Jr.,  Brockholst  Livingston,  J.  Fenimore  Cooper,  Henry 
Whcaton,  and  Drs.  David  Hosack  and  John  W.  Francis. 


252  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

On  the  22d  of  July,  the  poet,  in  a  letter  from  Liver 
pool,  says  :  "  We  arrived  here  yesterday  morning,  after 
a  pleasant  passage  of  twenty-one  days.  I  was  sea-sick 
for  an  hour  or  two  on  the  first  day,  and  in  perfect 
health  during  the  remainder  of  the  voyage.  We  had 
some  severe  weather,  which  made  all  hands  sick  except 
myself,  so  that  I  passed  for  an  old  sailor.  *  *  * 
There  is  little  at  this  place  worth  seeing,  and  I  shall 
start  for  London  to-day  at  one  o'clock.  I  should  have 
left  yesterday  but  for  the  difficulty  in  getting  my  bag 
gage  through  the  custom-house."  August  3d,  in  an 
other  letter,  he  writes:  "I  reached  London  on  the 
2 5th  ult.,  and  remained  there  until  Tuesday,  when  I 
visited  Bath,  returning  by  way  of  Bristol,  Cheltenham, 
Stratford-on-Avon,  and  Oxford.  To-morrow  I  shall 
embark  in  a  steamer  from  Dover  for  Calais,  and  from 
thence  shall  proceed  byway  of  Rouen  to  Paris."  A 
fortnight  later  Mr.  Halleck  says  :  "I  have  seen  nearly 
all  the  lions  of  Paris  and  at  Versailles,  and  shall  proceed 
to  Bordeaux  to-morrow."  Another  letter,  dated  Paris, 
September  loth,  announces  his  having  visited  Nantes, 
Bordeaux,  Lyons,  Geneva,  Mont  Blanc,  Lausanne, 
through  Switzerland  to  Basle,  and  thence  down  the 
Rhine  to  Strasburg. 

Halleck's  education,  as  has  been  already  mentioned, 
was  completed  in  his  fifteenth  year ;  at  least,  from  that 
period  he  assumed  the  direction  of  his  own  studies. 
Before  leaving  his  native  place  he  had  paid  some  atten- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  253 

tion  to  the  study  of  French,  and  soon  after  his  arrival 
in  New  York  he  availed  himself  of  the  opportunities 
which  the  great  metropolis  afforded  of  perfecting  and 
completing  his  knowledge  of  the  language,  so  that 
when  he  reached  France  he  understood  and  spoke  the 
language  of  the  country  sufficiently  well,  if  not  ele 
gantly,  to  be  sometimes  mistaken  for  a  Frenchman. 

Alluding,  on  one  occasion,  to  some  of  the  notable 
people  whom  he  met  in  Paris,  Halleck  mentioned  the 
name  of  Talleyrand,  and  then  followed  several  of  the 
diplomat's  renowned  mots,  as  the  French  have  it. 
When  Madame  de  Stael  published  "Delphine,"  she 
was  supposed  to  have  painted  herself  in  the  person  of 
the  heroine,  and  Talleyrand  in  that  of  an  elderly  lady, 
who  is  one  of  the  principal  characters.  "  On  me  dit," 
said  he  the  first  time  he  met  her,  "  que  nous  sommes 
tout  les  deux  dans  votre  roman  deguises  en  femme."  A 
gentleman  speaking  of  his  mother's  beauty,  and  dwell 
ing  at  great  length  on  the  subject,  he  himself  having 
certainly  inherited  no  portion  of  that  kind  from  his 
parents,  "  C'etait,  done,  monsieur,  votre  pere  qui  ap- 
paremment  n'etait  pas  trop  bien,"  was  the  reply,  which 
at  once  relieved  the  company  from  the  subject.  "  Ah, 
je  sens  les  tourmens  d'enfer,"  said  a  person  whose 
career  had  been  a  dissipated  one.  "Deja?  "  was  the 
laconic  inquiry  suggested  by  M.  Talleyrand.  Another 
repartee  related  to  me  by  the  poet  was  made  by  the 
prince  when  in  his  eighty-fourth  year,  showing  that 


254  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

even  then  he  was  remarkable  for  the  quickness  of  his 
perception  and  the  poignancy  of  his  wit.  At  a  dinner 
party  in  Paris  the  conversation  turned  on  the  longevity 
of  animals,  when  some  one  appealed  to  Talleyrand 
whether  the  parroquets  were  not  supposed  to  attain  the 
greatest  age.  His  answer  was  accompanied  by  a  sar 
castic  glance  at  one  of  the  guests,  "  Je  ne  me  connois 
pas  dans  la  vie  des  perroquets,  mais  j'en  ai  vu  beaucoup 
qui  radotent."  From  the  wily  and  witty  Frenchman 
the  poet  glided  into  remarks  about  the  French  lan 
guage,  concluding  with  the  amusing  reply  of  George 
Canning  to  a  person  who  was  expatiating  at  uncalled- 
for  length  on  its  merits,  "Why,  what  on  earth,  sir, 
can  be  expected  of  a  language  which  has  but  one  word 
for  liking  and  loving,  and  puts  a  fine  woman  and  a  leg 
of  mutton  on  a  par  :  faime  ^ilie  :  j'aime  un  gigot !  " 

Describing  to  me,  on  the  same  occasion,  his  visit 
to  the  tombs  of  French  kings  at  St.  Denis,  Halleck 
quoted  the  mocking  epitaph  made  on  the  Grand 
Monarque,  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  by  his  oppressed 
people : 

"  A  Saint  Denis  comme  a  Versailles, 
II  est  sans  coeur  et  sans  entrailles." 

From  London,  Mr.  Halleck  writes  under  date  of 
September  26th  :  "  I  wrote  to  you  from  Paris  on  my  re 
turn  from  Switzerland.  Since  that  time  I  have  been  at 
Brussels,  Waterloo,  Ghent,  etc.,  and  returned  to  Eng- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  255 

land  by  way  of  Calais  and  Dunkirk.  *  *  I  start  for 
Cambridge  this  morning,  en  route  for  Scotland." 

In  Edinburgh,  Halleck  met  and  dined  with  the  cele 
brated  publisher  Blackwood,  better  known  among  the 
literati  of  that  day  as  "  Old  Ebony."  Among  the 
guests  were  the  "Ettrick  Shepherd,"  and  James  Balen- 
tyne,  the  intimate  friend  and  partner  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott.  It  was  a  pleasant  occasion,  and  Halleck  was 
delighted  with  the  eccentricities  of  the  author  of  "  Kil- 
meny,"  no  less  than  with  the  easy  and  simple  manners 
of  the  persons  present,  who  frequently  called  each 
other  by  their  Christian  names.  Halleck  ever  held 
James  Hogg  in  high  estimation  as  a  poet,  and  he  once 
told  me  that  few  poems  had  afforded  him  so  much  de 
light  as  "  The  Queen's  Wake."  He  deemed  the  Shep 
herd's  lines,  written  for  the  famous  Buccleugh  Border 
celebration,  much  superior  to  Sir  Walter  Scott's. 

The  poet  visited  the  Scottish  lakes,  Ayrshire,  and 
the  border  country,  including  in  his  tour  Abbotsford, 
Melrose,  Hawick,  Kelso,  Jedburgh,  Flodden  Field, 
Carlisle,  and  the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Minto,  of  whom  he 
jestingly  spoke  as  his  cousin.  Halleck  was  fond  of 
claiming  the  Scottish  Eliots  as  his  ancestors,  and  often 
indulged  in  good-natured  witticisms  at  the  expense  of 
the  canny  Scots.  The  writer,  having  on  one  occasion 
quoted  the  paradoxes,  "  that  an  Englishman  is  never 
happy  except  when  he  is  miserable,  an  Irishman  never 
at  peace  except  when  at  war,  and  a  Scotchman  never  at 


2^6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

home  except  when  abroad,"  he  replied  :  "  No  wonder 
Scotchmen  are  met  with  everywhere,  for  every  man  of 
that  country,  who  has  any  sense,  leaves  it  as  soon  as 
possible.  You  of  course  remember  what  Churchill 
said  of  the  land  of  our  ancestors  : 

'  Formed  in  haste,  was  planted  in  a  nook, 
But  never  entered  in  Creation's  book.'  " 

From  Scotland,  Mr.  Halleck  crossed  over  to  Ire 
land,  where  he  remained  for  several  weeks.  I  have  no 
information  concerning  his  sojourn  in  the  land  of  Moore, 
beyond  what  is  contained  in  his  list  of  places  visited 
and  the  distances  travelled.  On  one  occasion  he  said 
to  a  gentleman  who  had  uttered  an  extravagant  com 
pliment  in  his  hearing,  "  I  perceive,  sir,  that,  like  my 
self,  you  visited  Blarney  Castle,  when  you  were  in  Ire 
land." 

Mr.  Halleck  spent  some  time  in  Wales,  visiting  va 
rious  points  of  interest.  Confined  in  a  country  inn,  on 
a  rainy  day  during  his  Welsh  tour,  he  amused  himself 
by  looking  over  the  newspapers  (new  and  old),  and  to 
his  great  surprise  recognized,  in  some  lines  entitled 
"Yankee  Ravings,"  a  poetical  address  "  To  the  Critics 
of  England,"  written  during  the  March  previous,  in 
somewhat  of  a  passion,  after  reading  the  Quarterly  Re 
view.  Halleck  gave  the  manuscript  to  an  intimate 
friend  before  his  departure  for  Europe,  and,  contrary  to 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2$7 

his  wishes,  it  had  somehow  found  its  way  during  his 
absence  to  the  columns  of  a  New- York  journal,  from 
which  his  spirited  reply  to  the  British  critics  had  been 
copied  into  the  London  papers  : 

Growl,  critics  of  England,  growl  on,  ye  hired  hounds 

Of  a  pitiful  court !  at  America's  name, 
For  long  as  that  name  through  your  vassal-air  sounds, 

It  must  crimson  your  cheeks  with  the  blushes  of  shame. 

Foam,  foam  at  the  mouth,  while  your  venomed  pens  write 
Your  falsehoods — 'tis  all  that  is  left  for  you  now ; 

And  'tis  wiser  and  safer  to  slander  than  fight 

The  nation  that  tore  glory's  wreath  from  your  brow. 

You  have  dared  us  to  battle,  and  twice  have  we  met 
And  beat  you,  alike  on  the  field  and  the  main, 

And  if  your  proud  hearts  are  not  satisfied  yet, 

Sound  your  bugles,  fire  first,  and  we'll  beat  you  again. 

Scribble  on — let  your  England  to  ages  expose 
Her  impotence,  ignorance,  malice,  and  fear, 

Till  the  spirit  that  prompts  your  assassin-like  blows 
Be  in  Europe  despised,  as  it  long  has  been  here. 

And  wear  on  your  foreheads  the  brand  ye  have  sought ; 

Prove  that  yours  is  the  home  of  the  coward  and  knave ; 
Where  honor  and  conscience  are  sold  and  are  bought, 

And  that  "  Briton  "  is  now  but  the  name  for  a  "  slave." 


258  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

And  think  not  there's  one  in  our  country  so  base 
As  to  hope  to  quench  ever  the  flame  of  your  ire ; 

No,  no  !  let  it  burn  till  the  last  of  your  race, 

'Mid  the  war-fires  you've  kindled,  in  torture  expire. 


For  our  children  are  sworn  at  the  altar  to  cherish 
A  hatred  for  England,  heart-rooted  and  deep ; 

If  that  vow  is  e'er  broke,  may  the  perjured  wretch  perish ; 
And  accursed  be  the  spot  where  his  traitor-bones  sleep  ! 

During  a  month's  sojourn  in  London,  from  the 
second  week  of  November  to  the  loth  day  of  Decem 
ber,  Mr.  Halleck  saw  many  places  and  persons  of 
interest.  He  twice  had  the  pleasure  of  gazing  upon 
Mrs.  Siddons,  and  repeatedly  passed  the  Duke  of  Wel 
lington  in  Hyde  Park  and  elsewhere.  He  also  saw  his 
father's  old  crony,  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  and  many  of 
the  leading  statesmen  of  that  day.  Halleck  visited  the 
India  House,  and  saw  Charles  Lamb's  desk,  but  missed 
a  meeting  with  the  gentle  Elia,  whom  he  really  wished 
to  see  face  to  face,  and  whom  he  in  so  many  respects 
resembled.  He  had  Lamb's  delicate  organization; 
like  him,  be  was  wedded  to  an  accountant's  desk ;  like 
Lamb,  Halleck  was  a  bachelor,  and  for  a  portion  of  his 
life  lived  with  an  unmarried  sister ;  like  Lamb,  he  was 
poor ;  and  he  possessed  Lamb's  love  of  humor,  his  pas 
sion  for  reading,  and  the  same  genial,  social,  and  lov 
able  traits  that  endeared  Charles  Lamb  to  so  many 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  259 

admiring  friends.  Of  them  both  it  may  be  said,  as 
was  spoken  of  Antonio,  that  he  was 

"  The  kindest  man, 

The  best-conditioned  and  unwearied  spirit 
In  doing  courtesies         *         * 
That  e'er  drew  breath." 

In  a  pleasing  description  of  his  pilgrimage  to  Hol 
land  House,  with  allusions  to  Addison,  and  some  of  the 
other  illustrious  names  connected  with  it,  he  on  one 
occasion  spoke  of  William  Shippen,  a  stout  old  Jacob 
ite,  immortalized  by  Pope  for  his  sincerity  : 

"  I  love  to  pour  out  all  myself  as  plain 
As  downright  Shippen,  or  as  old  Montaigne ; 
In  them  as  certain  to  be  loved  as  seen, 
The  soul  stood  forth,  nor  kept  a  thought  within." 

"When  Shippen,"  said  Halleck,  "was  asked  how  he 
should  vote  in  Parliament,  he  would  say,  '  I  cannot 
tell  until  I  hear  from  Rome.'  At  the  Eternal  City  re 
sided  the  Pretender.  Shippen  was  sent  to  the  Tower  for 
saying  of  King  George,  who  could  not  speak  English, 
that  'the  only  infelicity  of  his  Majesty's  reign  was, 
that  he  was  unacquainted  with  our  language  and  con 
stitution.'  "  It  was  on  the  same  occasion  that  the  poet 
said,  after  quoting  some  verses  from  an  old  Jacobite 
ballad:  "  Egad,  my  boy,  if  we  had  lived  in  Scotland  in 


26o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

those  days  (1745)  we  would  have  fought  the  bloody 
butcher  Cumberland ; 1  you  with  your  good  sabre  and 
I  with  my  stanzas." 

"  By  the  way,"  he  added,  "  speaking  of  the  British, 
did  you  ever  hear  my  growl  at  the  Quarterly  Review 
ers,  written  in  1822,  before  going  to  Europe?"  when 
he  repeated  several  verses  of  the  address  already  given. 
This  was  one  of  the  very  few  allusions  that,  from  the 
days  of  my  school-boy  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Halleck, 
I  ever  heard  him  make  to  his  own  poems.  James 
Lawson,  who  enjoyed  an  unbroken  friendship  with  the 
poet  of  nearly  fifty  years'  duration,  but  once  during 
that  long  period  heard  him  refer  to  his  own  writings. 
In  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Halleck,  he  incorrectly 
quoted  two  lines  from  one  of  his  most  popular  poems, 
the  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Burns : 

"  And  it  is  joy  to  speak  the  best 
We  can  of  human  kind." 

Touching  Mr.  Lawson  gently  on  the  arm,  Mr.  Halleck 
quietly  uttered  the  correct  word,  "  may,"  when  the 
conversation  was  continued  without  any  further  refer 
ence  to  the  subject;  "and  that,"  said  Mr.  Lawson, 
"was  the  only  time  I  ever  heard  Halleck  make  the 
slightest  allusion  to  his  own  poetry." 

During  his  sojourn  in  London,  Halleck  was  a  fre- 

1  The  Duke  of  Cumberland. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  26l 

quent  visitor  to  the  theatres,  and  among  the  distin 
guished  actors  whom  he  saw  at  Drury  Lane,  the  Hay- 
market,  and  other  play-houses,  was  Scott's  friend 
Terry,  Charles  Matthews,  and  Edmund  Kean,  with 
whom  he  afterward  became  well  acquainted.  The  fol 
lowing  letter  is  introduced  here,  as  it  contains  an  allu 
sion  to  the  widow  of  the  celebrated  Garrick,  whose 
funeral  Halleck  attended  in  London  in  1822  : 

[TO  JAMES  GRANT  WILSON.] 

GUILFORD,  Sept.  ii,  1867. 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL  :  I  have  your  favor  of  the  3ist 
ult.  That  the  perusal,  in  coming  years,  of  your  pres 
ent  correspondence  with  Mrs.  Dixon  will  help  keep  my 
name  in  your  remembrance,  is  a  joy  to  look  forward  to. 
Your  gift  of  the  two  extracts  has  given  me  much 
pleasure.  They  are  exceedingly  well  written,  and  place 
their  hero  and  heroine1  in  "  their  habit  as  they  lived" 
before  us.  By  the  by,  I  find  that,  like  your  friend, 
Captain  Lahrbush,2  I  am  myself  a  connecting  link 
between  Garrick  and  posterity  to  a  small  extent,  for  I 
was  present  in  London  in  July,  1822,  at  the  funeral  of 
Mrs.  Garrick,  from  No.  5  Adelphi  Terrace,  the  death- 
place  of  her  husband  and  herself. 

1  Sketches  of  David  Garrick  and  Mrs.  Sarah  Siddons. 

2  Captain  Frederick  Lahrbush,  an  English  veteran  of  one  hundred 
and  three  years  of  age,  who  served  under  Nelson  and  Wellington,  and  who 
frequently  saw  Garrick  and  Siddons  on  the  stage,  and  Dr.  Johnson  in  the 
streets  of  London. 


262  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

I  am  very  thankful  for  your  kind  offer  to  send  me 
the  "Old  New  York"  of  my  old  favorite,  Dr.  Francis; 
but  I  have  already  the  pleasure  of  possessing  a  copy, 
the  gift  of  our  friend  Mr.  Tuckerman.  It  is  especially 
interesting  to  me,  more  so  than  it  can  well  be  to  you, 
a  younger  man,  from  my  personal  intimacy  with  him, 
and  with  many  of  the  persons  and  events  it  memorial 
izes.  In  connection  with  it,  allow  me  to  beg  you  to 
read  Mr.  F.  S.  Cozzens's  recently  published  volume, 
"  The  Sayings  of  Dr.  Bushwhacker,"  etc.,  where  you 
will  see  and  hear  the  doctor  (assuming  that  you  have 
known  him  more  or  less  intimately)  alive  and  speaking 
before  you.  The  "  faculty  divine,"  the  power  of  in 
vention,  the  wit,  the  wisdom,  the  stores  of  miscel 
laneous  literature,  the  doctor  did  not  possess.  Your 
admiration  of  all  these  belongs  to  Mr.  Cozzens;  but 
the  doctor  dramatically  represents  them  to  your  perfect 
delight. 

I  have  long  more  than  fancied,  I  have  felt,  that  Mr. 
Cozzens,  in  that  department  of  genius  to  which  Mr. 
Irving's  "  Knickerbocker,"  a  work  superior,  in  my 
opinion,  to  the  "  Sketch-Book,"  belongs,  is  the  best, 
or  among  the  best,  writers  of  our  time  in  any  language. 
Analyze  his  lines  closely  and  critically,  and  I  have  little 
doubt  of  your  concurrence  in  my  belief. 

Mr.  Verplanck's  two  articles,  included  in  the  vol 
ume,  are  also  worthy  of  all  praise.  As  what  I  take 
great  pleasure  in  terming  "American  specimens  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  263 

English  literature,"  the  writings  of  these  two  gentle 
men  do  honor  to  our  side  of  the  Atlantic.  As  Addison 
says  in  his  "  Cato —  " 

"  In  them  our  Zama  does  not  stoop  to  Rome." 

We  have  others  of  whom  we  may  also  be  and  are  fast 
becoming  equally  proud.  I  have  been  emphatic  in 
using  the  word  English  in  place  of  American  litera 
ture,  because  I  have  never  been  able  to  define  what 
"American  Literature"  means.  Must  its  author  live 
at  and  speak  the  language  of  Canada  or  Cape  Horn  ? 
Must  he  write  in  Portuguese  in  the  Brazils  ?  in  Spanish 
at  Havana  ?  in  French  at  Quebec  ?  or  Cherokee  among 
our  Indians  ?  Does  not  the  fact  of  his  writing  in  Eng 
lish  (good  English)  entitle  him  to  a  place  among  the 
noblest  of  English  authors,  no  matter  to  what  form  of 
political  government  he  may  chance  to  owe  allegiance  ? 
The  "court  and  capital"  of  the  English  language  is 
London.  To  the  honors  of  that  "court  and  capital" 
Mr.  Irving's  writings  have  long  been  admitted,  and 
those  of  such  writers  of  ours  as  I  have  named  and 
could  name  will,  sooner  or  later,  be  admitted  as  grate 
fully  and  as  gladly  as  his  have  been. 

In  thanking  Mr.  Cozzens  for  the  present  of  his 
book,  I  told  him  that  it  proved  him  to  have  drunk  of 
the  waters  of  the  "well  of  English  undefiled,"  even  if 
he  had  stolen  the  bottles  in  which  they  were  imported  ! 


264  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

I  hope  you  younger  authors  will  profit,  or  rather  con 
tinue  to  profit,  by  his  example. 

There  remains  only  room  to  add  that 
I  am,  my  dear  General, 

Gratefully  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Halleck  was  as  happy  revelling  among  the  immense 
collections  of  the  old  book-dealers  of  London  as  it  was 
possible  for  any  man  to  be,  not  even  excepting  the 
gentle  Elia.  One  of  his  favorite  haunts  was  the  shop — 
I  think  in  St.  James's  Street — of  one  Robert  Triphook, 
a  veteran  bibliopolist,  whose  large  establishment  was  a 
familiar  resort  with  the  leading  gentry  and  literati  of 
London.  Triphook  was  a  man  of  intelligence  and  very 
extensive  reading,  and  in  pleasant  conversation  with 
him  the  poet  passed  many  agreeable  hours.  Here 
came  occasionally  Lord  Byron,  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
Shelley,  Coleridge,  Professor  Wilson,  Charles  Lamb, 
Thomas  Campbell,  Samuel  Rogers,  Leigh  Hunt,  and 
William  Hazlitt,  to  enjoy  an  hour's  literary  gossip  with 
the  St.  James's  Street  bookseller.  Halleck  was  intro 
duced  to  Hobhouse,  the  friend  of  Lord  Byron,  who 
lodged  with  Triphook,  but  modestly  declined  the  lat- 
ter's  offer  to  present  him  to  Coleridge,  who  called  one 
day  to  have  a  chat  with  the  dealer  in  literary  wares, 
while  Halleck  chanced  to  be  in  his  shop.  After  a 
careful  survey  of  the  author  of  the  "  Ancient  Mariner," 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  26$ 

and  having  heard  him  utter  a  few  sentences,  he  diffi 
dently  withdrew.  Triphook  outlived  all  his  distin 
guished  literary  friends  and  customers  enumerated 
above,  having  died  in  the  Charter  House,  London,  in 
October,  1868,  aged  nearly  ninety  years. 

On  the  nth  of  December,  the  poet  writes  to  Miss 
Halleck  :  "  We  have  been  detained  by  head-winds  until 
to-day.  We  are  now  dropping  out  of  the  harbor,  and, 
although  the  wind  is  not  quite  as  fair  as  we  could  wish, 
we  still  hope  to  get  out  to  sea  in  a  day  or  two.  You 
must  not  be  alarmed  if  you  do  not  hear  of  us  for  ninety 
days  or  even  more,  for  at  this  season  of  the  year  the 
winds  on  the  Atlantic  are  generally  west,  and,  of  course, 
ahead  for  us.  Write  me,  addressed  to  New  York." 

The  only  written  record,  excepting  his  letters,  most 
of  which  have  been  lost,  that  Mr.  Halleck  made  of  his 
European  tour,  was  in  a  little  memorandum-book,  in 
which  he  jotted  down  the  names  of  the  various  places 
which  he  visited,  together  with  the  distances  from  point 
to  point,  amounting  in  all,  exclusive  of  the  voyages  to 
and  from  Liverpool,  to  nearly  five  thousand  miles.  I  ap 
pend  the  names  as  they  occur,  omitting  the  dates  and 
distances,  as  being  of  no  especial  interest  at  this  time  : 

ENGLAND. — Liverpool,  Lan-  ENGLAND.  —  Brereton  Green, 

cashire.  Lancashire. 

Prescott,  Lancashire.  Church  Lawton,  Lancashire. 

Warrington,  Lancashire.  Newcastle-uhder-Lynn,  Staf- 

Knutsford,  Lancashire.  fordshire. 
12 


266 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


ENGLAND.  —  Trentham,  Staf 
fordshire. 

Stone,  Staffordshire. 

Wolesey  Bridge,  Stafford 
shire. 

Litchfield  Bridge,  Stafford 
shire. 

Tamworth  Bridge,  Stafford 
shire. 

Coventry,  Warwickshire. 

Lutterworth,  Leicestershire. 

Northampton,  Northamp 
tonshire. 

Woburn,  Bedfordshire. 

Dunstable,  Bedfordshire. 

St.  Alban's,  Hertfordshire. 

London,  Middlesex. 

Knightsbridge,  Middlesex. 

Kensington,  Middlesex. 

Hammersmith,  Middlesex. 

Turnham  Green,  Middlesex. 

Brentford,  Middlesex. 

Hounslow  Heath,  Middle 
sex. 

Slough,  Buckinghamshire. 

Salt  Hill,  Buckinghamshire. 

Maidenhead,  Berkshire. 

Reading,  Berkshire. 

Hungerford,  Berkshire. 

Marlborough,  Wiltshire. 

Calne,  Wiltshire. 

Chippenham,  Wiltshire. 

Bath,  Somersetshire. 

Bristol,  Gloucestershire. 

French  Hay,  Gloucester 
shire. 


ENGLAND.  —  Bristol,    Glou 
cestershire. 

Berkeley,  Gloucestershire. 

Gloucester,  Gloucestershire. 

Cheltenham,         Gloucester 
shire. 

Evesham,  Worcestershire. 

Stratford-on- A  von,  Warwick 
shire. 

Shipston,  Worcestershire. 

WToodstock,  Oxfordshire. 

Oxford,  Oxfordshire. 

Henley-on-Thames,  Oxford 
shire. 

Maidenhead,  Berkshire. 

London. 

Deptford,  Kent. 

Blackheath,  Kent. 

Shooter's  Hill,  Kent. 

Dartford,  Kent. 

Gravesend,  Kent. 

Rochester,  Kent. 

'Chatham,  Kent. 

Canterbury,  Kent. 

Dover,  Kent. 
FRANCE. — Calais. 

Boulogne. 

Samer. 

Montreuil  (Cressy). 

Abbeville. 

Beauvais. 

Beaumont. 

St.  Denis. 

Paris. 

Versailles  and  St.  Cloud. 

Paris. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


267 


FRANCE. — Etampes. 

Angerville. 

Orleans. 

Blois. 

Tours. 

Samer. 

Angers. 

Anciens. 

Nantes. 

Montaign. 

St.  Hermand. 

Rochelle. 

Rochefort. 

Saintes. 

St.  Aubin. 

Fontarabie. 

Danvut. 

Bordeaux. 

Libourne. 

Thiviers,  Perigueux. 

Thiviers. 

Limoges. 

Gueret. 

Chambon. 

Montblucon. 

Verfieuil. 

Moulins. 

Ronaune. 

Tarare. 

Lyons. 

Pont  d'Ain. 

Nantua. 

Bellegard,  Pays  France. 

Fort  de  Eluse. 
SWITZERLAND. — Geneva. 
SAVOY. — Annemase. 


SAVOY.— Bonneville. 

Cluses. 

St.  Martin. 

Servoz. 

Chamouni. 

Trient. 

SWITZERLAND. — Martigny 
(Valais). 

Bex. 

Villeneuve. 

Vevay  (Pays  de  Vaud). 

Lausanne. 

Mondon. 

Payerne. 

Fribourg. 

Berne. 

Fraubrunnen. 

Soleure. 

Balsthal. 

Holstein. 

Basle. 
FRANCE. — Colmar. 

Strasbourg  Kehl. 
GERMANY. — Blaumont. 
FRANCE. — Nancy. 

Bar. 

St.  Dijin. 

Chalons  Sur. 

Chateau-Thierry. 

Meaux. 

Bondy. 

Paris. 
GERMANY. — Strasbourg  to 

Kehl,  etc. 
FRANCE. — Paris  to  Compeigne. 

St.  Quentin. 


268 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


FRANCE. — Cambray. 

Valenciennes. 
BELGIUM. — Mons. 

Brussels. 

Waterloo. 

Brussels. 

Ghent. 

Bruges. 

Ostend. 
FRANCE. — Dunkirk. 

Calais. 
ENGLAND. — Dover. 

London. 

Epping  Forest,  Essex. 

Hockrill,  Hertfordshire. 

Cambridge,  Cambridgeshire. 

Huntingdon,      Huntingdon 
shire. 

Stamford,  Lincolnshire. 

Grantham,  Lincolnshire. 

Newark,  Nottinghamshire. 

Tuxford,  Nottinghamshire. 

Bantry,  Yorkshire. 

Doncaster,  Yorkshire. 

Tadcaster,  Yorkshire. 

York,  Yorkshire. 

Easingwold,  Yorkshire. 

Thirsk,  Yorkshire. 

North  Allerton,  Yorkshire. 

Darlington,  Durham. 

Durham,  Durham. 

Newcastle  -  upon  -  Tyne, 
Northumberland. 

Morpeth,  Northumberland. 

Alnwick,  Northumberland. 

Wooler,  Northumberland. 


SCOTLAND. — Coldstream. 

Kelso. 

Melrose. 

Edinburgh. 

Linlithgow. 

Falkirk. 

Bannockburn. 

Stirling. 

Doune. 

Calander. 

Trosachs. 

Inversnaid. 

Ballach. 

Dumbarton. 

Glasgow. 

Ayr. 

Irvine. 

Kilmarnock. 

Mauchline. 

Cumnock. 

Sanquhar. 

Dumfries. 

Annan. 

ENGLAND. — Carlisle,  Cumber 
land. 

Penrith,  Cumberland.' 

Keswick,  Cumberland. 

Ambleside,  Westmoreland. 

Lowwood,  Westmoreland. 

Kendal,  Westmoreland. 

Lancaster,  Lancashire. 

Preston,  Lancashire. 

Liverpool,  Lancashire. 

Chester,  Cheshire. 
WALES.  —  Hawarden,      Flint 
shire. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


269 


WALES. — Abergeley,  Denbigh 
shire. 

Conway,  Caernarvonshire. 

Bangor,  Caernarvonshire. 

Menai    Strait,    Caernarvon 
shire. 

Holyhead,  Anglesea. 
IRELAND. — Howth. 

Dublin. 

Rathcoole,  Dublin. 

Johnstown,  Kildare. 

Naas. 

Kilcullen. 

Timolin. 

Castle  Dermot. 

Carlow. 

Leighlin,  Carlow. 

Leighlin  Bridge,  Carlow. 

Royal  Oak,  Carlow. 

Gowran,  Kilkenny. 

Kilkenny,  Kilkenny. 

Thomastown,  Kilkenny. 

Waterford,  Waterford. 

New  Ross,  Wexford. 

Wexford,  Wexford. 

Enniscorthy,  Wexford. 

Firnes,  Wexford. 

Camolin,  Wexford. 

Gorey,  Wexford. 

Arklow,  Wicklow. 

Rathun,  Wicklow. 


IRELAND. — Newtown,    Mt. 
Kennedy. 

Bray. 

Dublin. 

Howth. 

Holyhead. 
WALES. — Bangor  Ferry. 

Cerrig-y-Druidion,  Denbigh 
shire. 

Corwen,  Merionethshire. 

Llangollen,  Denbighshire. 
ENGLAND. — Oswestry,  Shrop 
shire. 

Shrewsbury,  Shropshire. 

Wem,  Shropshire. 

Whitchurch,  Shropshire. 

Chester,  Cheshire. 

Liverpool,  Lancashire. 

Stone,  Staffordshire. 

Stafford,  Staffordshire. 

Penkridge,  Staffordshire. 

Wolverhampton,       Stafford 
shire. 

Birmingham,  Warwickshire. 

Henley-on-Arden,  WTar wick- 
shire. 

Stratford-on- Avon,  Warwick 
shire. 

Oxford. 

London. 

Liverpool. 


During  his  European  tour,  Halleck  wrote  two  of 
his  finest  poems — "  Alnwick  Castle"  and  "Burns." 
It  was  a  lovely  September  day,  and  the  last  day  of  the 


270  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

month,  that  the  poet  visited  the  historic  "  Home  of 
the  Percy's  high-born  race,"  in  the  north  of  England, 
near  the  Scottish  border.  The  evening  of  the  follow 
ing  day,  as  he  sat  alone  beneath  the  shadows  of  Melrose 
Abbey,  he  arranged  the  thoughts  that  had  filled  his 
mind  during  the  day,  and  on  returning  from  his  moon 
light  excursion  to  the  Melrose  inn,  when  long  past 
midnight,  the  poet  wrote  with  a  pencil  a  rough  draft 
of  the  beautiful  poem  of  "Alnwick  Castle,"  substan 
tially  as  it  now  appears.  If  there  be  any  finer  lines  in 
the  whole  range  of  English  poetry  than  are  to  be  met 
with  in  this  abbreviated  romance,  I  have  yet  to  meet 
with  them.  It  is  a  perfect  gem,  and  contains  a  spirit 
of  unadulterated  chivalry  which  the  true  poet  alone 
can  picture  forth  to  us.  Not  certainly  in  American 
poetry  can  be  found  a  finer  or  more  concentrated 
sketch  than  the  following  : 

Gaze  on  the  abbey's  ruined  pile  ; 

Does  not  the  succoring  ivy,  keeping 
Her  watch  around  it,  seem  to  smile, 

As  o'er  a  loved  one  sleeping  ? 
One  solitary  turret  gray 

Still  tells,  in  melancholy  glory, 
The  legend  of  the  Cheviot  day, 

The  Percy's  proudest  border  story. 
That  day  its  roof  was  triumph's  arch ; 

Then  rang  from  aisle  to  pictured  dome 
The  light  step  of  the  soldier's  march, 


F1TZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

The  music  of  the  trump  and  drum ; 
And  babe,  and  sire,  the  old,  the  young, 
And  the  monk's  hymn,  and  minstrel's  song, 
And  woman's  pure  kiss,  sweet  and  long, 

Welcomed  her  warrior  home. 


No  one,  it  would  seem,  can  possibly  read  these 
stirring  lines,  or  the  entire  poem,  which  begins  with  a 
stateliness  of  verse  and  a  grandeur  of  thought  worthy 
of  Pindar,  without  being  wafted  back  with  his  "mind's 
eye"  a  thousand  years,  to  days  of  feudal  glory  and 
warlike  enterprise ;  of  knights-templars  and  queens  of 
beauty  presiding  over  brilliant  tournaments;  without 
hearing  the  minstrel's  lay  and  the  retainer's  shout ; 
without  seeing  the  plume  of  the  heroic  Hotspur  and 
the  scarf  of  the  lovely  Katherine  flitting  like  visions 
before  the  eye,  and  without  feeling  the  blood  coursing 
more  quickly  through  the  veins,  producing  the  same 
effect  as  the  singing  of  the  grand  old  border  ballad  of 
"  Chevy  Chase  "  never  failed  to  produce  upon  that  sweet 
poet  and  true  mirror  of  chivalry,  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

An  allusion  to  "Alnwick  Castle"  which  greatly 
gratified  the  author  was  made  by  his  friend  and  ad 
mirer,  John  Quincy  Adams,  in  a  speech  delivered  by 
him  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  14, 
1836,  on  the  subject  of  the  bequest  made  by  James 
Smithson,  of  London,  to  the  United  States.  The  ven 
erable  ex-President  said : 


272  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  The  father  of  the  testator,  upon  forming  his 
alliance  with  the  heiress  of  the  family  of  the  Percys, 
assumed,  by  an  act  of  the  British  Parliament,  that 
name,  and  under  it  became  Duke  of  Northumberland. 
But,  renowned  as  is  the  name  of  Percy  in  the  historical 
annals  of  England,  resounding  as  it  does  from  the 
summit  of  the  Cheviot  hills  to  the  ears  of  our  children, 
in  the  ballad  of  '  Chevy  Chase,'  with  the  classical 
commentary  of  Addison ;  freshened  and  renovated  in 
our  memory  as  it  has  recently  been  from  the  purest 
fountain  of  poetical  inspiration,  in  the  loftier  strain  of 
'  Alnwick  Castle,'  tuned  by  a  bard  of  our  own  native 
land;  doubly  immortalized  as  it  is  in  the  deathless 
dramas  of  Shakespeare ;  '  confident  against  the  world 
in  arms,'  as  it  may  have  been  in  ages  long  past,  and 
may  still  be  in  the  virtues  of  its  present  possessors  by 
inheritance ;  let  the  trust  of  James  Smithson  to  the 
United  States  of  America  be  faithfully  executed  by 
their  Representatives  in  Congress ;  let  the  result  ac 
complish  his  object,  'the  increase  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  among  men,'  and  a  wreath  of  more  unfad 
ing  verdure  shall  entwine  itself  in  the  lapse  of  future 
ages  around  the  name  of  Smithson,  than  the  united 
hands  of  tradition,  history,  and  poetry  have  braided 
around  the  name  of  Percy,  through  the  long  perspec 
tive  in  ages  past  of  a  thousand  years." 

Edgar  A.  Poe  said  of  this  poem,  that  it  "is  distin 
guished  in  general  by  that  air  of  quiet  grace,  both  in 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  273 

thought  and  expression,  which  is  the  prevailing  feature 
of  the  muse  of  Halleck.  Its  second  stanza  is  a  good 
specimen  of  this  manner.  The  commencement  of  the 
fourth  belongs  to  a  very  high  order  of  poetry : 

'  Wild  roses  by  the  abbey  towers 

Are  gay  in  their  young  bud  and  bloom — 

They  were  born  of  a  race  of  funeral  flowers 

That  garlanded,  in  long-gone  hours, 
A  Templar's  knightly  tomb !  ' 

This  is  gloriously  imaginative,  and  the  effect  is  sin 
gularly  increased  by  the  sudden  transition  from  iam 
buses  to  anapaests.  The  passage  is,  I  think,  the 
noblest  to  be  found  in  Halleck,  and  I  would  be  at  a 
loss  to  discover  its  parallel  in  all  American  poetry." 
"Am wick  Castle"  was  an  especial  favorite  with  an 
other  eminent  poet,  Samuel  Rogers,  who  often  read 
passages  from  it  at  his  famous  breakfast-parties.  The 
banker-poet's  high  opinion  of  Halleck's  poetry  is  ex 
pressed  in  the  following  letter  from  Dr.  Joseph  G. 
Cogswell : 

[TO   FITZ-GREENE   HALLECK.] 

LONDON,  June  15,  1849. 

MY  DEAR  HALLECK  :  I  must  send  you  a  line  to 

report  to  you  the  substance  of  a  delightful  conversation 

I  had  with  Rogers  about  you  last  week.     He  asked 

Lady  Davy,  at  one  of  his  breakfasts,  if  she  had  read 

12* 


274  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

your  poems;  she  answered  no.  "Shame  on  you," 
said  he;  "he  has  written  some  things  which  no  poet 
living  has  surpassed,  and  you  shall  not  be  ignorant  of 
him  any  longer."  The  book  was  brought,  and  Rogers 
read  in  his  best  manner  several  passages  from  "  Aln- 
wick  Castle,"  the  greater  part  of  "Marco  Bozzaris," 
and  a  few  of  the  shorter  pieces.  He  then  laid  down 
the  volume  and  entertained  us  with  a  beautiful  tribute 
to  your  merit  as  a  poet.  The  consequence  was,  that 
Lady  Davy  begged  me  to  tell  her  where  she  could  buy 
the  book.  I  have  little  or  no  time  for  society,  but  I 
cannot  refuse  Rogers's  invitations,  he  is  so  very  kind. 
Nearly  eighty-three,  he  has  the  life  and  spirit  of  a  man 
in  the  vigor  of  life.  I  breakfast  with  him  once  a  week, 
and  always  meet  pleasant  people. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Jos.  G.  COGSWELL. 

On  the  loth  of  October,  the  poet  visited  the  birth 
place  of  Robert  Burns.  Two  days  later  he  stood  by 
his  grave.  When  or  where  he  composed  the  verses 
so  full  of  sensibility,  tenderness,  imagination,  and  feel 
ing — verses  which  will  forever  connect  the  names  of 
Burns  and  Halleck — I  have  no  exact  information.  I 
only  know  that  they  were  written  and  published  anony 
mously  in  Great  Britain  before  his  departure  for  the 
United  States.  The  poem  attracted  much  attention  in 
England  and  in  Scotland,  and  a  copy  of  it,  printed  in 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  375 

large  type  and  neatly  framed,  has  ever  since  hung  on 
the  walls  of  the  principal  room  of  Burns's  birthplace. 
"  Nothing  finer  has  been  written  about  Robert  than 
Mr.  Halleck's  poem,"  said  Isabella,  the  youngest  sister 
of  the  Ayrshire  bard,"  as  she  gave  me,  in  the  summer 
of  1855,  some  rosebuds  from  her  garden  and  leaves  of 
ivy  plucked  from  her  cottage-door,  near  the  banks  of 
the  "  bonny  Doon,"  to  carry  back  to  my  gifted  friend. 
This  brave,  beautiful,  and  manly  poem,  which  Halleck 
valued  more  highly  than  any  other  of  his  own,  and 
which  Paulding  deemed  his  noblest,  although  less 
known  and  less  popular  than  several  of  his  other  pro 
ductions,  would,  I  think,  be  sufficient,  had  he  written 
nothing  else,  to  entitle  him  to  a  place  in  the  front  rank 
of  American  poets.  Is  it  too  much  to  say  of  Halleck, 
as  he  said  of  Burns  : 

There  have  been  loftier  themes  than  his, 
And  longer  scrolls,  and  louder  lyres, 

And  lays  lit  up  with  Poesy's 
Purer  and  holier  fires  : 

Yet  read  the  names  that  know  not  death  : 
Few  nobler  ones  than  his  are  there ; 

And  few  have  won  a  greener  wreath 
Than  that  which  binds  his  hair. 

His  is  the  language  of  the  heart, 
In  which  the  answering  heart  would  speak, 


276  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Thought,  word,  that  bids  the  warm  tear  start, 
Or  the  smile  light  the  cheek ; 

And  his  the  music,  to  whose  tones 
The  common  pulse  of  man  keeps  time, 

In  cot  or  castle's  mirth  or  moan, 
In  cold  or  sunny  clime. 

In  this  connection  my  readers  will,  I  trust,  be  in 
terested  in  the  following  description  of  a  visit  to  Ayr, 
in  which  Mr.  Halleck's  name  occurs.  It  is  from  the 
pen  of  the  poet's  attached  friend  Charles  Augustus 
Davis,  and  was  written  many,  many  years  ago.  "  On 
a  beautiful  morning  in  June  I  took  a  conveyance  from 
Ayr  and  drove  to  '  Alloway  Kirk, '  a  few  miles  distant 
— the  road  leading  by  the  birth-place  of  Burns,  I 
alighted  there — and  found  it  occupied  by  a  ruddy,  hale, 
and  animated  Scotch  matron.  She  was  exceedingly 
civil,  and  entered  at  once  with  much  enthusiasm  into  a 
full  description  of  various  events  and  incidents  directly 
associated  with  the  origin  of  Burns ;  particulars  of 
which,  as  they  are  matters  of  history,  it  were  needless 
here  to  repeat.  The  cottage  is  a  very  humble,  thatched 
building,  divided  into  three  apartments  :  a  kitchen,  a 
sitting-room,  and  a  stable,  or  rubbish-room.  The 
kitchen  floor  is  laid  with  rough,  flat  stones,  and  in  one 
corner  of  this  room  is  a  small  nook  just  large  enough 
for  an  humble  »bi&l.'  Here  Burns  was  born. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  277 

"  The  room  next  to  this  kitchen  is  what  might  be 
called  a  keeping-room  or  parlor.  Its  floor  is  of  plank. 
A  small  elm-wood  table  and  a  few  chairs  constitute  its 
entire  furniture,  every  article  of  which  is  covered 
with  names  and  initials  of  '  pilgrims  to  that  shrine.' 
The  good  dame  told  me  that  she  had  '  sold  all  the  fur 
niture  to  a  gentleman  of  Glasgow,  for  a  good  warm 
sum, — but,'  said  she,  '  it  is  na  the  furniture  of  Burns, 
and  I  told  the  gentleman  so  ;  but  he  said  it  had  been 
long  enough  in  the  house  to  answer  his  purpose,  and 
as  we  move  away  in  October  next,  it  would  na  longer 
be  of  any  value  to  us.' 

"  It  appears  that  the  father  of  this  good  dame  took 
the  house  after  the  elder  Mr.  Burns  (the  father  of  the 
poet)  left  it,  and  the  same  family  has  retained  posses 
sion  ever  since. 

"  '  There,'  says  she,  '  that  little  cupboard  door  there 
is  worth  more  than  a'  the  furniture ;  but  that  I  could 
na'  sell,  as  it  belongs  to  the  hoose — but  many  a  supper 
has  Robert  eaten  from  that  cupboard — and  the  door  is 
the  same  that  old  Mr.  Burns  made  himself.' 

"  In  fact,  the  father  of  the  poet  built  the  cottage 
with  his  own  hands.  The  whole  structure  is  only  one 
story  high,  about  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  wide,  and  per 
haps  thirty  feet  in  length. 

"  A  short  distance  beyond  this  cottage  stand  the 
ruins  of  Alloway  Kirk — a  small  remnant  of  a  small 
building — its  two  gable-ends  still  remain  with  a  por- 


2^8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

tion  of  its  side  walls,  its  roof  and  rafters,  with  every 
vestige  of  woodwork  belonging  to  it,  gone  long  since 
into  chairs  and  snuff-boxes. 

"  The  '  Bonnie  Boon  '  was  near — the  space  between 
its  '  banks  and  braes '  occupied  by  a  beautiful  cottage 
of  exquisite  form  and  finish  (bearing  the  name  of  Doon- 
brae  cottage),  and  covered  with  vines  and  surrounded 
with  roses  and  other  flowers.  Whilst  walking  around 
the  ruins  of  the  '  Old  Kirk,'  an  elderly  person  ap 
proached  me  from  the  cottage,  whose  manner  and  ap 
pearance  at  once  invited  me  to  a  conversation  with  him. 
I  soon  found  that  he  was  the  owner  and  occupant  of 
the  cottage  I  had  been  admiring,  and  he  kindly  invited 
me  in  ;  which  invitation  I  readily  accepted. 

"  I  found  him  a  second  and  improved  edition  of  the 
good  dame  of  the  old  cottage  in  all  matters  associated 
with  Burns ;  his  rooms  were  filled  with  beautiful  pic 
tures  and  drawings  of  scenes  and  events  rendered  im 
mortal  by  the  genius  of  the  poet;  and  under  glass 
cases  were  secured  various  letters  and  other  papers  in 
the  handwriting  of  Robert  Burns. 

"  I  told  him  I  had  come  from  afar  to  visit  the  spot. 

"  'Ay,  mon,'  said  he,  'many  come  even  fra  Lon 
don.' 

"'Yes,'  said  I,  '  and  so  have  I,  even  from  New 
London.' 

"He  looked  inquiringly;  and  to  satisfy  him  at 
once,  I  told  him  I  had  come  from  New  York  in  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2JQ 

United  States  of  America ;  and  although  I  had  visited 
many  interesting  points  in  Scotland,  I  felt  that  I  had 
seen  little,  did  I  not  visit  the  birthplace  of  Burns,  Allo- 
way  Kirk,  the  braes  of  Doon,  and  other  scenes  conse 
crated  by  his  genius. 

"  '  You  came  from  New  York  !  then  you  may  have 
haird  of  Halleck  ?  ' 

"  'Oh,  yes,'  said  I,  '  he  is  a  neighbor  of  mine — I 
know  him  intimately  and  well — everybody  knows  him 
in  America.' 

"'Ye  ken  Halleck!'  and  looking  at  me  with  a 
mixture  of  doubt  and  joy,  like  a  man  who  had  just 
picked  up  a  coin  covered  with  mud,  stands  rubbing 
and  looking  at  it  alternately,  to  see  whether  it  comes 
out  gold  or  brass — '  ye  ken  Halleck,  say  ye  ? — gie  us 
your  hand,  mon,  again.'  • 

"  I  soon  assured  him  of  the  fact ;  and,  turning  from 
me,  he  went  to  his  library  and  brought  me  a  very  beau 
tifully  bound  book — lately  published — containing  all 
the  writings  of  Burns,  sketches  of  honors  paid  to  his 
memory,  and  filled  with  beautiful  pictures  of  scenes  and 
events  associated  with  the  poet ;  and  hurrying  back  to 
its  first  pages  :  '  there,'  said  he,  '  look  at  that — there  is 
not  in  all  that  book,  except  what  Burns  has  written, 
any  thing  that  compares  with  Halleck's  lines  on  that 
'wild  rose  of  Alloway.'  Sure  enough,  there  stood  in 
proud  and  merited  eminence  that  beautiful  poem  of 
my  countryman.  I  commenced  reading  it,  and  at 


28o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

every  line  he  would  make  some  exclamation — '  Is  na 
that  poetry  ? ' — '  does  not  that  warm  the  heart  ? ' — 
'  ay,  mon.'  '  There  is  nothing  like  it,  sir,  in  a'  the  lan 
guage,  sin  the  days  of  Burns  himself.' 

"  I  had  often  thrilled  with  pleasure  in  reading  those 
lines  when  far  distant  from  the  scenes  they  described  ; 
but  reading  them  here  on  the  very  spot  made  the  blood 
dance,  to  say  nothing  of  the  accompaniment  of  Davy 
Auld,  my  kind  host,  who  stood  by,  slapping  his  hands, 
stamping  his  foot,  and  smacking  his  lips,  and  fetching 
a  deep  '  Hey,  mon,'  at  intervals. 

"  After  accompanying  me  to  the  monument  hard 
by,  and  to  the  '  Brig  O'Doon,'  calling  my  special  at 
tention  to  the  i  Key  Stane '  where  '  Tarn  O'Shanter ' 
just  saved  himself,  but  lost  the  tail  of  his  old  mare 
Maggie,  and  pointing  out  every  scene  and  incident 
around,  with  all  which  Mr.  Auld  was  as  familiar  as 
with  his  own  fingers,  I  left  him,  and  retuned  to  Ayr, 
where  I  proposed  to  wait  for  him,  till  he  had  carefully 
packed  up  some  '  mementoes  for  Halleck,'  which  he 
desired  me  to  carry  to  him,  and  which  pleasing  duty  I 
strictly  performed  ;  for,  as  old  Davy  Auld  says  :  '  Who 
kens  Halleck  and  does  na'  feel  proud  o'  him  ? '  " 

When  Halleck's  poem  of  "Burns"  was  first  pub 
lished  in  the  papers  of  this  country,  in  1823,  one  of  the 
fair  Elizas  of  former  days  was  returning  in  a  carriage, 
with  her  husband,  from  the  Philadelphia  market.  Be 
ing  an  ardent  admirer  of  poetry,  and  noticing  some 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  28l 

verses  in  the  newspaper  which  the  market-man  had 
wrapped  around  the  radishes — one  of  their  purchases — 
she  took  it  up,  read  and  re-read  it,  and  then,  turning  to 
Mr.  R ,  said:  "  There  is  but  one  poet  in  this  coun 
try  that  could  have  written  those  lines,  and  that  is  our 
friend  Fitz-Greene  Halleck."  Thirty-six  years  later  he 
was  equally  gratified  upon  learning  that  a  young  ac 
quaintance,  who  attended,  as  the  orator  of  the  evening, 
a  centennial  celebration  of  the  birthday  of  Robert  Burns 
in  a  Western  city,  had  concluded  his  address  by  repeat 
ing  the  whole  of  his  eloquent  tribute  to  Scotland's 
poet — that  the  "brawlads  and  bonnie  lasses"  there 
assembled  had,  amid  huzzas  and  waving  of  'kerchiefs, 
drank  his  health,  and  that  the  speaker  had  been 
requested  by  the  chairman  to  forward  to  Mr.  Halleck 
a  bunch  of  blooming  heather,  a  large  quantity  of 
which  had  been  imported  from  Scotland  for  the  occa 
sion. 

In  addition  to  "  Alnwick  Castle"  and  "Burns," 
Halleck  composed  during  the  year  1822,  and  prior  to 
his  departure  for  Europe,  the  song  sung  by  Miss 
Johnson  in  the  drama  of  "  The  Spy"  in  the  character 
of  Frances ;  a  translation  from  the  French  of  General 
Lallemand,  beginning,  "  Sweet  maid,  whose  life  the 
frost  of  destiny,"  written  in  Miss  Denning's  album; 
and  some  lines  for  Miss  Eliza  Livingston,  freely  trans 
lated  from  an  ode  written  by  his  friend  and  Italian 
tutor,  Lorenzo  Daponte,  commencing,  "  Eyes  blue  and 


2g2  LIFE  AND  LETTERS. 

bright,  and  beautiful  as  thou."  Halleck  was  one  of 
Daponte's  two  thousand  New  York  pupils,  and  often 
spoke  feelingly  of  his  former  maestro,  and  for  many 
years  professor  of  Italian  literature  in  Columbia  Col 
lege,  New  York.  To  Signer  Daponte,  the  personal 
friend  of  Mozart,  and  the  composer  of  the  libretto  of 
"Don  Giovanni"  and  "  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro,"  the  poet 
told  me,  we  were  indebted  for  the  introduction  of  Italian 
opera  in  this  country,  he  having,  with  the  late  Domin- 
ick  Lynch  and  Stephen  Price,  induced  Garcia,  with  his 
gifted  daughter,  Maria  Felicia,  Rosich,  Augrisani,  and 
Barbiere,  to  visit  the  United  States  in  1825.  On  the 
night  of  October  29th  "II  Barbiere  de  Seviglia"  was 
performed  by  the  Garcia  troupe  at  the  Park  Theatre, 
of  which  Price  was  then  manager,  in  the  presence  of 
a  large  and  fashionable  audience,  including  Joseph 
Bonaparte,  the  ex-King  of  Spain,  and  the  friends  Feni- 
more  Cooper  and  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  who  sat  side  by 
side,  delighted  listeners  to  the  magnificent  singing  of 
the  celebrated  Signorina  Garcia. 


CHAPTER    V. 

1823-1830. 

Arrival  in  New  York. — Lines  on  Lieutenant  Allen. — Visits  Guilford. — 
Meets  Percival. — Marco  Bozzaris. — Sketch  of  the  Hero. — Lafayette. — 
The  Poet  Brainard. — Maginn's  Translation  from  Beranger. — Byron's 
Death. — Invocation  to  Halleck. — An  Unpublished  "  Croaker." — Publi 
cation  of  Poems. — Lines  on  Red  Jacket. — The  Recorder. — Death  of 
William  Coleman.— Leaves  Jacob  Barker.— The  Last  "Croaker." 

|S  the  poet  had  anticipated  when  writing  to  Miss 
Halleck  from  Liverpool,  December  nth,  the 
voyage  was  a  stormy  one,  with  head-winds  all  the  way ; 
and,  indeed,  was  so  protracted  that  his  friends  and  those 
of  his  travelling  companion,  Robert  Barker,  felt  great 
uneasiness  in  regard  to  their  safety.  Many  believed  the 
vessel  to  have  been  lost.  She,  however,  arrived  safely, 
after  a  tedious  voyage  of  nearly  seventy  days.  Mr. 
Halleck  writes  to  the  home-circle  at  Guilford  :  "I  am 
sorry  you  were  induced  to  despair  of  my  arrival  after 
the  sixty  days  allowed  me  had  gone  by.  I  wrote  you 
from  Liverpool  on,  I  think,  the  23d  of  November,  and 
also  on  the  nth  of  December  (the  day  we  sailed),  re 
questing  you  not  to  be  alarmed  if  you  heard  nothing 


284  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of  me  before  the  ist  of  March,  the  winds  at  this  season 
being  almost  mvariably  adverse  to  a  homeward  passage, 
and  also  asking  you  to  write  me  at  New  York,  that  I 
might  have  the  pleasure  of  opening  a  letter  from  you 
the  first  moment  of  my  arrival.  These  two  letters  were 
put  on  board  two  of  the  regular  packet-ships,  which 
are  supposed  to  sail  better  than  the  ordinary  merchant- 
ships,  and  I  presumed  you  would  have  them  long  be 
fore  I  reached  home.  But  it  has  so  happened  that 
both  vessels  had  longer  passages  than  the  John  Wells, 
and  the  letter  of  the  23d  November  being  enclosed  to 
Mr.  Barker,  has  reached  me ;  the  other  I  do  not  doubt 
has  gone  on  to  you  at  Guilford. 

"As  soon  as  I  get  my  affairs  a  little  in  order,  and 
the  weather  becomes  more  desirable  for  a  traveller,  I 
intend  coming  to  see  you.  '  The  gay  lilied  fields  of 
France '  have  ruined  the  climate  of  this  cold  country 
in  my  good  opinion,  and  I  am  afraid  of  another  attack 
of  my  whirligig  in  the  head  if  I  expose  myself  much  at 
this  season.  I  am  now  perfectly  free  from  it,  except 
that  I  do  not  hear  with  my  left  ear ;  but  at  Liverpool  I 
was  tortured  with  it  for  three  weeks,  and  I  fear  the 
cold  and  the  rainy  weather  still.  Please  tell  my  father 
that  I  am  well  and  intend  visiting  Guilford  before  long. 
I  did  not  see  the  personages  you  mentioned.1  Wash 
ington  Irving  was  not  in  England  while  I  was  there. 
Had  I  seen  him,  I  probably  should  have  formed  more 

1  Byron,  Moore,  Southey,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  etc. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  285 

acquaintances  than  I  did,  but  I  went  to  see  things,  not 
men,  and  it  did  not  comport  with  my  plans  or  my 
pocket  to  mix  in  society.  I  will  write  you  more  par 
ticularly  soon.  I  wish  we  had  money,  we  would  go  to 

France  together ;  but " 

Lieutenant  William  Howard  Allen,  whose  death 
was  mourned  by  Halleck  in  the  beautiful  lines  written 
soon  after  his  return  from  Europe  in  1823,  was  a  native 
of  Hudson,  where  he  was  born  on  the  8th  of  July,  1790, 
the  same  day  that  gave  birth  to  the  poet.  He  was 
appointed  a  midshipman  in  1808,  and  served  in  the 
Chesapeake  and  United  States.  He  was  on  board  the 
Argus,  as  second  lieutenant,  in  her  desperate  action 
with  the  British  ship-of-war  Pelican,  August  13,  1813, 
and  took  command  after  the  captain  and  first  lieuten 
ant  were  botn  wounded,  the  former  mortally.  Four 
years  later  he  was  promoted,  and  in  1822  he  was  as 
signed  to  the  command  of  the  Alligator,  and  imme 
diately  sailed  for  the  West  Indies,  on  a  cruise  against 
the  pirates,  in  which  he  plucked  a  wreath  of  glory,  but 
the  shaft  of  death  was  in  it.  He  found  the  outlaws, 
who  were  committing  such  ravages  on  American  com 
merce,  in  the  Bay  of  Le  Juapo,  near  Matanzas,  and  at 
once  attacked  them  in  boats.  The  Alligator,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  shoalness  of  the  water,  could  not  take 
part  in  the  action.  The  pirates  made  a  desperate  re 
sistance,  but  were  soon  driven  from  their  flag-ship  by 
Lieutenant  Allen,  who  led  the  attack.  He  pursued 


286  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

them  to  the  other  vessels.  A  musket-ball  struck  him ; 
still  he  pressed  forward,  cheering  his  men  on,  and, 
when  about  to  board,  another  bullet  pierced  his  breast, 
and  he  died  about  three  hours  after,  without  a  sigh  or 
a  groan,  having  previously  given  directions  respecting 
the  captured  vessels.  His  mother,  as  the  poet  says,  a 
few  hours  after  hearing  of  her  son's  death,  died — liter 
ally  of  a  broken  heart. 

Two  months  after  Halleck's  return  from  Europe, 
he  made  his  annual  visit  to  Guilford,  and  spent  ten 
days  very  pleasantly  among  his  relatives  and  friends, 
and  amidst  the  cherished  scenes  of  his  boyhood.  On 
his  return,  he  halted  for  a  day  at  New  Haven,  where 
he  met  a  brother-poet,  Dr.  James  G.  Percival,  and 
Professor  Silliman.  Professor  Fowler,  in  his  "Life  of 
Percival,"  says :  "  Not  very  long  after  Percival  became 
known  as  a  poet,  I  happened  to  meet  in  New  Haven 
my  old  friend  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  the  poet,  who  had 
just  returned  from  his  travels  abroad.  I  proposed  to 
him  to  call  upon  Percival,  to  whom  he  was  person 
ally  a  stranger.  To  this  he  readily  consented.  Ac 
cordingly,  we  went  to  Percival's  room,  a  retired  chamber 
in  the  house  of  Mr.  Johnson,  in  Chapel  Street.  When 
the  two  poets  met,  there  was  certainly  a  great  contrast 
between  them.  The  one  was  a  man  of  the  world, 
polished  and  fashionably  dressed,  fresh  from  foreign 
travel,  of  warm  manners,  ready  sympathies,  fascinat 
ing  address,  and  graceful  conversation.  The  other 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  28; 

was  Percival,  such  as  I  have  described  him  to  be. 
During  the  first  of  the  interview  they  were  still  apart, 
though  in  the  presence  of  each  other.  After  a  while 
Percival  became  responsive,  the  coldness  passed  off, 
and  the  souls  of  the  two*  poets,  in  full  and  free  com 
munion,  flowed  on  in  a  delightful  stream  of  conversa 
tion.  Recollecting  this  interview,  I  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  survivor,  Mr.  Halleck,  asking  him  for  some 
remembrances  of  Percival.  To  this  he  wrote  me  the 
following  reply : 

[TO   WILLIAM   C.    FOWLER.] 

'GuiLFORD,  CONN.,  Aug.  13,  1863. 

1  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  had  the  honor  of  receiving 
your  favor  of  the  3d  instant. 

'I  well  remember  the  interview  with   Percival  to 

• 

which  you  allude,  and  for  which  I  was  so  deeply  in 
debted  to  your  kindness;  and  I  blush  to  remember 
that,  in  endeavoring  to  draw  him  out  in  conversation, 
I  inflicted  upon  you  both  more  of  my  own  rambling 
talk  than  was  meet  or  interesting.  He  certainly  proved 
himself,  on  the  occasion,  rather  a  courteous  listener 
than  an  intrusive  speaker,  saying  very  little,  but  saying 
that  little  exceedingly  well. 

'  Several  years  afterward  I  had  the  pleasure  of  dining 
with  him  at  the  table  of  a  gentleman  of  your  acquaint 
ance  in  New  Haven,  who  had  done  me  the  honor  of 
inviting  me  specially  to  meet  Percival.  He  then  took 


288  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

gradually  and  gracefully  the  lead  in  conversation,  and 
kept  it,  blending  grave  topics  with  gay,  during  the 
dinner  and  in  the  drawing-room  after,  to  the  delight  of 
a  circle  of  some  seven  or  eight  of  us,  including  two  or 
three  ladies,  one  of  whom  has  since  told  me  how  agree 
ably  disappointed  she  was  to  find,  in  the  place  of  the 
morose  and  silent  and  bashful  personage  she  had  been 
led  to  expect,  so  cheerful  and  charming  a  companion. 
He  was  then  deep  in  the  study  of  the  languages  of 
Northern  Europe,  and  told  a  love-story  or  two,  whose 
scenes  were  laid  in  Sweden,  in  so  interesting  a  manner, 
that  she  now  blends  him  with  her  pleasant  recollections 
of  the  romances  of  Miss  Bremer  and  the  music  of  Jenny 
Lind. 

'  I  was  introduced  to  him,  for  the  first  time,  as  far 
back  as  1821  or  1822,  in  New  York,  where  he  was 
passing  a  few  weeks,  and  was  a  frequent  guest  of  Mr. 
Cooper  the  novelist,  and  of  a  circle  of  gentlemen 
delighting  in  literature  and  its  specialties,  all  of  whom 
appreciated  and  admired  him  alike  as  a  man  and  a 
man  of  letters,  and  were  very  desirous  that  he  should 
become  a  resident  of  New  York,  and  make  authorship 
a  pursuit  as  well  as  a  pastime,  with  a  view  to  which 
they  tried  to  persuade  him  to  publish  a  new  volume  of 
poems.  A  reminiscence  connected  with  the  subject 
may,  possibly,  aid  in  supplying  you  with  materials  for 
the  contemplated  work  you  mention. 

'  On  Percival's  return  to  New  Haven,  Mr.  William 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  289 

L.  Stone,  then  the  editor  of  the  Commercial  Adver 
tiser,  opened  a  correspondence  with  him,  referring  to 
the  desired  volume,  and  offering  his  services  in  obtain 
ing  a  publisher,  carrying  the  work  through  the  press, 
etc.,  and  for  a  time  had  reason  to  hope  that  his  request 
would  be  granted ;  but,  after  a  delay  of  some  weeks, 
Percival  wrote  him  that  circumstances  had  put  it  out 
of  his  power  to  devote  himself  to  poetry,  and  had  com 
pelled  him  to  accept  employment  in  that  most  degrad 
ing  and  disgraceful  of  all  occupations — the  editorship 
of  a  party  newspaper !  As  Mr.  Stone  had  long  and 
honorably  held  that  position,  and  cherished  it  dearly 
as  a  source,  not  only  of  power  and  profit,  but  of  social 
pleasure,  the  mal  apropos  ingenuousness  of  the  sensitive 
poet  amused  us  all  exceedingly,  and  no  one  more  so 
than  Mr.  Stone  himself.  His  son  survives  him,  and 
resides,  I  believe,  in  New  York  at  this  moment.  The 
letter  would  form  a  curious  item  in  the  forthcoming 
biography. 

'  I  shall  be  happy  to  hear  from  you  at  all  times  on 
this  and  all  subjects  interesting  to  you,  and  hope  that 
you  will  not  allow  us  long  to  wait  for  a  volume  so  cer 
tain  to  delight  and  interest  us. 
*  Believe  me,  dear  sir, 

'  Most  truly  yours, 

'  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.'" 

In  a  letter  to  Miss  Halleck,  dated  New  York,  May 
'3 


2^0  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

1 9th,  the  poet  refers  briefly  to  his  sojourn  in  New 
Haven.  He  says:  "I  spent  two  or  three  hours  with 
Percival  in  New  Haven  the  day  I  left  you.  Mr.  Fowler, 
now  a  tutor  in  the  college  there,  formerly  a  classmate  of 
George  Elliot,  met  me  in  the  street  and  very  politely 
showed  me  the  lions,  that  is  to  say,  the  colleges, 
library,  pictures,  minerals,  Professor  Silliman,  and  Mr. 
!Percival.  I  found  the  latter  an  agreeable  companion 
after  his  embarrassment  at  being  introduced  had  sub 
sided.  He  is  wonderfully  timid,  and  hardly  spoke  for 
the  first  half  hour.  *  *  *  Should  any  letters  for 
me  be  received  at  Guilford,  please  forward  them  to  me 
here.  I  am  going  up  the  North  River  to  pass  a  week 
or  two." 

"  It  is  a  curious  fact,"  says  Henry  T.  Tuckerman, 
"that  Halleck  composed  the  poem  by  which  he  is 
most  widely  known — the  favorite  elocutionary  exercise 
of  the  schoolboy  and  the  intuitive  watchword  of  patri 
otic  appeal — with  that  unconsciousness  of  its  superior 
merit  that  seems  characteristic  of  real  poetic  genius. 
Among  his  fellow-clerks  in  Jacob  Barker's  counting- 
house,  was  a  young  man  of  literary  culture  and  disci 
plined  taste,1  to  whom  he  used  to  confide  his  effusions, 
to  be  read  overnight  and  reported  on  at  the  first  inter 
val  of  leisure  the  next  day.  One  evening,  having 
missed  the  usual  opportunity  of  quietly  slipping  into 
his  friend's  hand  the  latest  'copy  of  verses,'  he  left 

1  The  late  Daniel  Embury. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  29! 

them  at  his  lodgings,  with  '  Will  this  do  ?  '  written  on 
the  margin.  The  poem  was  e  Marco  Bozzaris,'  and 
the  fortunate  owner  of  the  unique  and  precious  auto 
graph  related  the  incident  as  he  showed  me  the  original 
manuscript."  The  last  copy  that  Halleck  made  of  this 
noble  poem  was  at  my  request,  in  August,  1867,  for  a 
lady,  to  whom  the  late  Greek  minister  remarked  that 
"  it  was  the  link  between  America  and  Greece."  No 
finer  martial  lyric  has  been  produced  since.  Samuel 
Rogers,  who  was  fond  of  reading  it  to  his  guests  at  his 
famous  breakfasts,  said  "it  is  better  than  any  thing  we 
can  do  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic." 

When  Doctor  Mott  visited  Europe,  he  met  Rosa, 
the  youngest  daughter  of  Marco  Bozzaris,  justly  styled 
"the  Epaminondas  of  modern  Greece,"  who  bore  a 
striking  resemblance  to  the  hero.  She  was  studying 
the  English  language,  that  she  might  read  Halleck's 
poems  in  the  original,  and  with  charming  frankness  and 
naivete  said  she  had  an  ardent  desire  to  go  to  America 
expressly  to  see  the  poet  who  had  immortalized  her 
father.  An  amusing  allusion  to  this  poem,  and  to  the 
fact  of  his  being  a  bachelor,  occurs  in  a  letter  to  the 
author,  dated  April  20,  1867  : 


[TO  JAMES   GRANT   WILSON.] 

MY    DEAR    GENERAL  :    In    conformity    with    my 
promise  made  you  at  our  last  pleasant  interview,   I 


292  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

take  leave  to  enclose  herein  the  certificate  of  my  being, 
or  having  been,  a  married  man  : 

"  STUDENT. — Fitz-Greene  Halleck  was  the  author 
of  'Marco  Bozzaris.'  It  was  written  on  a  wager  with 
his  wife  that,  in  a  given  time,  he  would  produce  a  first- 
class  poem,  containing  a  certain  number  of  lines.  He 
won  the  wager,  and  the  result  of  his  inspiration  was 
that  grand  versification  that  will  live  and  be  admired 
as  long  as  the  English  language  is  written  and  spoken." 

I  have  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  the  happen 
ing  of  the  happy  event  recorded  above;  but,  as  the 
announcement  of  it  comes  from  an  infallible  source, 
that  of  the  pen  of  the  editor  of  a  party  newspaper, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  of  the  fact;  and  I 
delight  in  congratulating  myself  upon  my  long-enjoyed 
matrimonial  felicity  accordingly.  My  position  in  the 
premises  seems  to  be  the  reverse  of  that  of  the  gentle 
man  in  "  Joe  Miller,"  who,  when  a  friend  of  his  said  to 
him,  "I  was  not  aware,  my  dear  sir,  until  recently,  of 

your  having  been    horsewhipped  by   Mr.    ,    last 

June,"    answered,    "  Indeed !   why    I   knew   it  at  the 
time!"         *         *         * 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK 

This  noble  poem  first  appeared  in  the  New-  York 
Review,  and  immediately  acquired  a  degree  of  popu 
larity  not  attained  by  any  other  of  Mr.  Halleck's  com 
positions.  As  will  be  seen  by  the  following  letter,  his 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  293 

own  family  did  not,  however,  happen  to  hear  or  know 
aught  of  it,  for  six  years  ;  a  condition  of  things  almost 
equal  to  the  ignorance  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  children 
of  their  illustrious  father's  lyrical  romances.  His  eldest 
son,  a  tall  boy  of  sixteen,  had  a  pitched  battle  with  one 
of  his  comrades,  who  called  him  the  Lady  of  the  Lake. 
Master  Walter,  never  having  heard  of  his  father's  poem, 
and  deeming  it  an  offensive  epithet  to  be  applied  to 
himself,  set  about  the  task  of  thrashing  the  culprit,  but 
unfortunately  got  worsted  in  the  battle,  and  went  back 
to  Abbotsford  with  a  black  eye  and  bloody  face,  and 
great  was  the  amusement  of  Sir  Walter  upon  learning 
the  cause  of  the  encounter. 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  March  26,  1827. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  yours  of  the  23d.  I  am 
somewhat  surprised  and  quite  amused  at  your  not  hav 
ing  before  read  or  even  heard  of  my  rhymes  on  Marco 
Bozzaris.  You  remind  me  of  the  Chinese  in  one  of 
Goldsmith's  essays,  who,  on  inquiring  at  a  bookseller's 
shop  in  Amsterdam  for  the  works  of  the  immortal 
Chong-fu  (or  some  such  name),  a  Chinese  author  of 
great  eminence,  was  astonished  to  find  that  the  illus 
trious  and  immortal  author  and  his  writings  were  to 
tally  unknown  out  of  China.  Why,  "  Bozzaris  "  is  here 
considered  my  cJief  d'oeuvre,  the  keystone  of  the  arch 
of  my  renown,  if  renown  it  be.  It  has  been  published 


294  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

and  puffed  in  a  thousand  (more  or  less)  magazines  and 
newspapers,  not  only  in  America,  but  in  England, 
Scotland,  Ireland,  etc.  It  has  been  translated  into 
French  and  modern  Greek.  It  has  been  spouted  on 
the  stage  and  off  the  stage,  in  schools  and  colleges, 
etc.,  etc.  It  has  been  quoted  even  in  the  pulpit,  and 
placed  as  mottoes  over  the  chapters  of  a  novel  or  two. 
It  was  published  some  months  since  in  a  Philadelphia 
magazine  of  foreign  literature  as  selected  from  an  Edin 
burgh  work,  and  all  the  newspaper  editors  in  town  ac 
cused  all  England  of  plagiarism,  etc.,  for  a  whole  week 
(a  long  time  for  one  subject  to  live,  as  times  go),  and 
the  editor  of  the  Philadelphia  magazine  came  out  with 
a  puff  and  an  apology,  and  something  about  "  our  ac 
complished  countryman,  F.  G.  Halleck,  Esq.,"  and 
after  all,  that  you  should  never  have  heard  of,  or  read 
it ;  y&u,  almost  the  only  person  living  (for  I  have  be 
come  accustomed  to  it)  to  whom  the  music  of  my  fame 
can  be  delightful,  is  really  worth  remark.  Keep  this 
letter  to  yourself;  it  contains  more  about  myself  and 
my  verses  than  I  have  ever  said  or  written  before,  and 
much  more  than  they  are  worth. 

Yours  affectionately, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

If  I  can  find  any  of  the  newspaper  and  other  puffs 
upon  my  poetry,  I  will  collect  and  send  them  to  you. 
They  may  serve  to  amuse  you.  I  am  now  too  old  a 
Grub-street  man  to  be  flattered  by  them.  F.  G.  H. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2<)$ 

Two  Greek  translations  have  been  recently  made 
of  Mr.  Halleck's  poem — one  in  prose,  March,  1859,  by 
Prof.  Canale,  a  Zacynthian,  which  will  surprise  not  a 
few  scholars  by  showing  how  nearly  the  modern  ap 
proaches  the  ancient  Greek;  the  other  translation, 
made  in  March,  1868,  by  A.  P.  Rangabe,  the  late  Greek 
ambassador,  and  an  accomplished  scholar,  who,  in 
writing  to  the  author  March  31,  186$,  says  :  "  After  the 
receipt  of  your  letter,  thinking  that  the  beautiful  poem 
('  Marco  Bozzaris ')  should  be  known  and  considered  as 
a  poetical  and  sympathetic  link  between  our  two  coun 
tries,  nations  devoted  equally  to  the  worship  of  free 
dom,  I  attempted  myself  a  metrical  translation  of  the 
ode.  I  sent  it  yesterday  to  Athens,  and  I  presume  that 
it  will  be  published  in  the  May  number  of  the  Pandora, 
the  most  important  of  our  periodicals.  If  it  can  be  of 
any  interest  to  you,  or  to  your  proposed  work,  to  pos 
sess  the  translation,  I  will,  with  the  greatest  pleasure, 
send  you  a  copy  of  my  manuscript,  or,  better  perhaps, 
a  printed  copy,  when  I  receive  them  from  Greece." 
Both  translations  will  be  found  in  the  appendix  to  this 
volume. 

Of  Prof.  Canale's  prose  translation,  a  thorough 
Greek  scholar  says :  "I  have  carefully  compared  the 
translation  with  the  original  in  the  King's  English,  and 
am  satisfied  that  the  translator  has  performed  his  task 
faithfully,  truthfully,  and  conscientiously.  So  far  as  I 
am  able  to  judge,  the  poem  has  lost  nothing  by  its 


2^6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

transfiguration  ;  "  and  I  think  the  same  high  commen 
dation  can  be  awarded  to  the  admirable  metrical  version 
made  by  Mr.  Rangabe. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  "  Marco  Bozzaris," 
the  author  repeated  the  poem  to  one  of  his  most  inti 
mate  lady-friends,  who  had  not  met  with  it  in  the 
magazines  or  newspapers,  and,  upon  her  expressing 
her  admiration  of  the  beautiful  lines,  followed  by  the 
inquiry,  "Who  was  Marco  Bozzaris?"  Mr.  Halleck 
answered  in  a  somewhat  despondent  and  disappointed 
manner,  saying:  "What  is  the  use  of  men  becoming 
martyrs  for  liberty,  or  of  poets  celebrating  heroes,  if 
ladies  won't  read  and  inform  themselves  of  the  events 
of  the  day?" 

Another  incident  connected  with  this  poem,  of  a 
grotesque  character,  any  allusion  to  which  never  failed 
to  elicit  a  groan  from  the  poet,  occurred  several  years 
after  its  first  publication.  At  Villegrand's,  in  Church 
Street,  near  West  Broadway,  where  the  poet  lived  for 
so  many  years,  they,  had  a  dinner-party,  at  which  it 
was  expected  that  each  gentleman  present  would  sing 
a  song  or  make  a  speech.  Among  the  persons  living 
there  at  the  time  was  a  Dutch  Jew,  whose  English  was 
execrable,  and,  for  a  joke,  Villegrand  persuaded  him, 
as  he  could  neither  sing  nor  make  a  speech,  to  commit 
to  memory  "  Marco  Bozzaris,"  and,  when  called  upon 
at  the  dinner,  to  recite  that  very  popular  poem,  which 
would  gratify  the  author's  friends  no  less  than  the  poet 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  2gj 

himself.  He  did  as  advised  by  the  waggish  French 
man  ;  and,  when  the  day  came  round  and  he  was  called 
upon,  rose  and  said :  "  Shentlemans,  I  can  neither 
make  de  speech,  nor  sing  de  shong,  but  vill  deliver  von 
grand  poem,"  whereupon,  to  the  indescribable  disgust 
of  the  astonished  poet,  he  fairly  crucified  him  by 
reeiting  in  his  damnable  Dutch  every  line  of  his 
exquisite  composition.  For  a  long  time  Halleck  re 
mained  in  ignorance  as  to  the  real  perpetrator  of  this 
joke,  and  when  he  met,  in  after-years,  Edmund  Coffin, 
a  fellow-lodger  with  himself  at  Villegrand's  at  the  time, 
would  invariably  shake  his  finger  at  him  in  a  playful 
manner,  and  say,  "  You  did  it !  " 

Mr.  Sargent,  of  Boston,  in  a  letter  to  the  author, 
enclosing  an  epistle  written  by  the  poet,  says:  "In 
sending  him  a  proof  of  his  '  Marco  Bozzaris,'  I  criti 
cised  the  lines  you  will  find  quoted  in  his  letter ;  not 
that  I  did  not  readily  apprehend  the  reference,  but  be 
cause  I  thought,  in  the  rapid  flow  of  the  poem,  where 
all  else  is  obvious  and  distinct,  there  should  not  occur 
a  metaphor  that  to  many  readers  would  be  obscure. 
With  his  usual  good-nature,  Halleck  answered  my  ob 
jection  in  the  best  way  he  could,  by  reminding  me 
of  the  seals  mentioned  in  Revelation.  But  I  do  not 
think  he  was  himself  altogether  satisfied  with  the 
couplet."  , 

13* 


298  LIpE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

[TO   EPES   SARGENT.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Oct.  18,  1851. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  Your  favor  of  the  loth  instant,  ad 
dressed  to  me  at  New  Haven,  has  reached  me  here, 
where  I  now  reside.  I  am  grateful  for  your  kind  re 
membrance  of  me,  after  so  long  a  separation.  As  you 
request,  I  have  corrected  the  proof,  so  far  as  it  goes. 

What  a  question  you  do  put  in  asking  a  rhymer 
what  his  rhymes  mean !  Were  you  not  a  poet  your 
self,  I  would  not  attempt  an  answer.  But  I  think  I 
I  meant,  in  the  lines  you  quote — 

"  Come  when  the  blessed  seals 
That  close  the  pestilence  are  broke — " 

to  speak  of  one  of  the  instruments  of  Heaven's  wrath 
toward  man,  named  in  the  Litany — Plague,  pestilence, 
and  famine — kept  bottled  up,  corked  up,  sealed  up, 
and  only  opened  on  important  occasions;  a  sort  of 
torpedo,  enclosed  in  a  letter,  which  explodes  when  you 
break  the  seal.  I  do  not  recollect  where  I  stole  the 
idea.  There  is  something  very  like  it  in  Revelation, 
chapters  v.  and  vi. 

As  John  Wilson  said,  when  he  knocked  a  man 
down  at  Ambleside,  "  I  hope  I  make  myself  under 
stood  now." 

Pray  let  me  hear  from  you  often,  and  believe  me, 
my  dear  sir,  most  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  299 

The  following  sketch  of  the  hero,  written  by 
his  countryman,  Professor  Canale,  and  dedicated  to 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  "as  a  slight  token  of  admira 
tion  for  his  genius  and  gratitude  for  his  friend 
ship,"  will,  I  trust,  in  this  connection,  be  read  with 
interest : 

"  Of  all  the  heroes  of  regenerated  Greece,  Botzares 
1  stands  alone  in  his  glory.'  His  daring  achievements 
are  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  our  times.  Not  only 
the  loftiest  daring  but  the  most  consummate  prudence 
distinguished  the  exploit  which  terminated  his  career.1 
He  spared  not  himself,  but  he  was  economical  in  men ; 
to  be  sure  of  which  design,  he  accepted  only  three 
hundred.  To  make  sure  of  heroes,  he  had  them  all 
partake  of  the  sacrament,  like  men  preparing  to  die. 
To  fill  them  with  confidence,  he  made  them  swear  to 
rescue  the  wounded  from  the  disgrace  of  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  Turks.  To  equalize  his  fate  with  theirs, 
he  tore  his  official  diploma  in  shreds,  and,  like  the 
Americans,  Putnam  and  Warren,  claimed  a  soldier's 
privileges.  Without  drum  or  banner,  his  Suliotes  and 
Parghiotes  started  on  their  march,  after  dancing  the 
Pyrrhic  round  and  singing  a  death-song  to  despotism, 
like  the  paean-ode  of  ancient  Athens,  recorded  by  JEs- 
chylus.  A  march  of  forty  miles  across  the  plains  and 
mountains,  and  over  torrents  swollen  by  late  rains,  was 

1  He  fell  in  a  night  attack  on  the  camp  of  the  Turks,  August  20,  1823. 
at  a  place  called  Carpenesi,  in  the  north  of  Greece. 


^oo  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

accomplished  in  only  seven  hours,  when  they  reached 
Subalacan  and  met  Caraiscos,  who  had  retreated  all 
the  way  from  Epirus,  and  was  bleeding  from  wounds 
received,  first  from  Omar  Vryone's  Chalcidian  warriors, 
and  next  from  the  nucleus  of  Mustapha's  immense 
force,  which  nucleus  was  a  desperate  body  of  eight 
thousand  Miredites,  under  the  immediate  command  of 
Jelaludin  Bey,  nephew  and  lieutenant  of  Mustapha. 
Carai'scos  was  astonished  at  Botzares's  contempt  of  the 
enemy  in  bringing  so  small  a  counterpoise,  and  invited 
him  to  betake  himself  to  Bruso's  tower.  Botzares  re 
plied  that  he  was  aware  of  the  terrible  odds,  but  that 
there  was  needed  a  breakwater  of  true  Hellenic  daring, 
and  he  had  selected  a  Spartan  band.  Carai'scos  smiled 
at  the  allusion  to  the  ancients,  but  declared  himselt 
and  men  too  long  harassed  by  fatigue  and  hunger,  and 
debilitated  by  wounds,  to  join  his  devoted  corps.  Bot 
zares  lauded  his  course,  and  ordered  him  to  remain  in 
the  rear.  At  this  order  Carai'scos  startled.  '  Who  is* 
general  ? '  asked  he.  Then  a  prominent  subaltern  in 
formed  Carai'scos  of  recent  events.  'Mustapha's  ap 
proach,'  said  he,  '  was  spreading  alarm  through 
Messolongi,  when  Botzares,  hearing  the  appalling  re 
port  of  the  Islamitish  army's  advance,  was  the  only 
chieftain  who  advised  immediate  resistance,  saying : 
"  Let  us  dam  the  torrent  near  its  source,  before 
it  become  a  deluge  and  dash  against  our  city's 
earthy  wall !  "  His  eyes  flashed  nobly,  and  the  army 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^Ol 

felt  proud  of  his  resolve.  The  people  approved,  and 
the  senate  appointed  him  general-in-chief. '  So  spake 
the  subordinate  officer,  but  Carai'scos  asked  to  see  the 
diploma  by  which  Botzares  was  made  his  superior. 
At  that  demand  the  chieftain  of  this  hardy  design  gave 
a  lightning-glance  of  scorn,  and  exclaimed :  '  The 
sword  is  my  diploma,  and  I  will  seal  it  in  Ottoman 
blood.'  Carai'scos  still  remonstrated,  but  Botzares 
and  his  men  simultaneously  shouted,  '  Onward ! '  But, 
before  starting,  Botzares,  at  midnight,  seeing  the  hos 
tile  camp-fires  extending  for  miles,  and  knowing 
thereby  that,  to  reach  the  nucleus  of  the  Turkish 
armament,  he  must  move  with  caution,  ordered  his 
men  to  leave  their  rifles  behind.  '  Our  swords  and 
pistols,'  said  he,  'will  suffice;  for  the  battle  will  be 
hand  to  hand.  Commence  not  till  you  hear  my  pistol 
discharged.  Our  watchword  shall  be  "  Sword."  On 
entering  the  camp  we  shall  pass  as  an  Albanian  rein 
forcement,  and,  to  prevent  suspicion,  all  of  you  will 
scatter  in  bodies  of  five  or  ten  in  different  directions, 
as  if  going  to  your  posts.  If  you  wish  to  know  where 
to  find  me,  so  as  to  collect  your  strength,  remember 
that  my  place  of  rendezvous  is  the  pacha's  tent.  It 
shall  be  my  headquarters  if  you  are  brave ! '  So  spake 
the  chief,  and  conducted  them  to  the  camp.  '  Who  is 
there?'  shouted  the  sentinel.  'A  reinforcement,'  re 
plied  Botzares,  and  immediately  the  sentinel  was  de 
prived  of  existence.  On  reaching  the  tent  of  the 


AND  LETTERS   OF 

pacha,  the  Suliote  chieftain  found  in  it  the  lieutenant 
commanding  the  nucleus  of  the  forces.  Mustapha  was 
reposing  in  the  tent  of  the  latter.  Botzares  discharged 
his  pistol  in  the  tent,  and  at  that  signal  the  three 
hundred  discharged  theirs,  and  drew  their  sabres, 
enacting  a  frightful  carnage.  Botzares  met  in  the  tent 
the  lieutenant,  seized  him  by  the  beard,  and  was  asked, 
i  Who  dares  violate  my  sacred  beard ! '  Botzares,  in 
a  voice  of  thunder,  replied,  'Do  you  not  know  that 
Marco  Botzares  is  in  your  camp  ?  '  At  that  word  '  Bot 
zares,'  the  Turks  poured  a  terrible  discharge  of  mus 
ketry  into  the  pacha's  tent.  But  the  hero,  though 
wounded,  endangered  himself  still  more  by  shouting, 
'  Where  are  you,  my  comrades  ?  I  hold  the  Turkish 
general's  head.  Only  one  Greek  falls ;  rescue  my 
body.'  Then  in  the  darkness  began  a  bloody  strife  for 
his  body,  until  the  Turks,  in  dismay,  struggled  to  cut 
a  passage  away  from  the  scene  of  conflict.  The  Greeks 
were  aided  by  their  watchword,  but  the  Turks,  blinded 
by  fear,  slew  one  another.  Botzares  was  rescued,  and 
toward  dawn  Carai'scos  descended  and  completed  the 
victory.  After  this  brilliant  action,  the  Ottoman  force 
was  so  inefficient,  that  the  nation  enjoyed  comparative 
repose,  and  had  leisure  to  bury  the  hero  with  the 
greatest  honors.  But  the  tribute  due  to  his  memory 
was  paid  not  only  by  Greece,  but  by  all  nations  that 
embraced  the  party  of  the  oppressed.  Byron  was  torn 
from  a  career  of  dissipation  by  admiration  of  the  e  new 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  -503 

Leonidas,'  and  Halleck  made  his  fame  universal  by 
this  expression : 

'  Thou  art  freedom's  now ! '  ' 

The  family  of  Marco  Botzares  (as  the  name  is  prop 
erly  written),  not  only  by  the  bravery  of  the  hero,  but 
by  the  wisdom  and  integrity  of  his  late  brother  Con- 
stantine,  a  senator  of  the  kingdom,  is  one  of  the 
most  popular  in  Greece.  Mr.  Rangabe  writes  to  me  : 
"  The  wife  of  M.  Bozzaris  is  still  living.  She  is  a 
very  respectable  and  worthy  woman,  of  a  fine  na 
ture  and  amiable  character.  His  son,  Demetrius,  is 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  friends  of  the  Greek 
army.  He  was  educated  at  Munich,  at  the  expense  of 
the  late  King  Louis  of  Bavaria.  He  has  been  an  aide- 
de-camp  of  King  Otho,  and  several  times  minister  of 
war  under  King  George.  Of  the  daughters  of  Bozzaris, 
the  eldest  married  General  Sissins,  and  after  his  death, 
A.  Antonopoulo,  a  primate  of  Poloponnese ;  the  other, 
Rose,  was  considered  one  of  the  most  beautiful  young 
girls  in  Greece.  She  has  been  maid  of  honor  to  the 
Queen  Amalia.  She  is  now  the  wife  of  General  Ca- 
razza,  a  Greek  native  of  Constantinople.  The  Greeks, 
as  the  prophetic  words  of  the  poet  have  foretold,  be 
stow  the  greatest  honors  on  the  name  and  the  memory 
of  Bozzaris."  Many  years  ago,  the  poet  was  gratified 
by  receiving  a  gift  of  a  picture  from  the  nephews  of  the 
hero,  accompanied  by  a  letter  addressed  to  "  Fitz- 


304  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Greene  Halleck,  the  American  poet  who  wrote  the 
1  Marco  Bozzaris.'  "  Marco  and  Cresto,  sons  of  Con- 
stantine  Bozzaris,  a  brother  of  the  Suliote  chief,  who 
were  educated  at  the  Greek  Lyceum  in  Syria,  closed 
their  communication  to  Mr.  Halleck  with  these  words  : 
"  May  you  live  long  and  be  happy." 

In  addition  to  the  lines  on  Lieutenant  Allen  and 
"  Marco  Bozzaris,"  Halleck  wrote,  during  the  year 
1823,  his  poem  of  "  Magdalen,"  concerning  which  I 
have  no  other  information  than  is  contained  in  the 
poet's  note:  "Written  in  1823,  for  a  love-stricken 
young  officer  on  his  way  to  Greece.  The  reader  will 
have  the  kindness  to  presume  that  he  died  there." 

It  was  after  alluding  to  General  Lafayette  and  de 
scribing  at  length  his  reception  in  New  York  in  1824, 
that  Halleck  repeated  .in  his  animated  manner  several 
stanzas  of  Beranger's  ' '  Lafayette  en  A  merique. "  Apro 
pos  of  the  French  "poet,  I  have  seen  in  Halleck's  hand 
writing  a  translation  of  one  of  his  very  popular  poems, 
"  The  Garret,"  which  was  a  great  favorite  of  his,  and  a 
composition  from  which  he  often  quoted  in  his  letters 
and  conversation  both  in  the  original  and  from  Dr. 
Maginn's  admirable  translation,  the  best  of  the  many 
English  versions  of  Beranger's  spirited  lines. 

The  poet  writes  to  Miss  Halleck,  May  15,  1824: 
"  Since  the  first  of  this  month,  I  have  again  become 
concerned  in  the  affairs  of  the  Washington  and  Warren 
Bank,  and  have  not  had  a  moment's  time  to  answer 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  30$ 

your  letter  of  the  24th  of  April.  *  *  *  About  the 
first  of  April,  I  accompanied  Mr.  Samuel  Hazard,  the 
brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Barker,  to  Philadelphia  to  assist, 
as  the  French  say,  in  marrying  him  to  a  Miss  Pierce  of 
that  city.  One  of  the  bridesmaids,  Miss  Agnes  Hamil 
ton,  my  partner  on  the  occasion,  has  a  clear  income  of 
seventy  thousand  dollars — somewhere  about  a  million 
and  a  half.  There's  a  target  for  a  bachelor  to  aim  at. 
We  remained  a  week  in  Philadelphia,  from  thence 
went  to  Bristol,  a  country-town  about  twenty  miles 
distant,  and  returned  from  there  at  the  end  of  an 
other  week  to  this  city.  I  was  also  concerned  in  the 
marriage  of  Mademoiselle  Estelle,  some  time  ago, 
and  seemed  fated  to  be  present  at  all  weddings  except 
my  own." 

Mr.  Halleck's  friend  and  correspondent,  Mrs.  Rush, 
of  Philadelphia,  remembers  being  in  company  with 
the  poet  one  evening  early  in  the  summer  of  1824, 
when  some  one  entered  with  the  news  that  Byron  had 
died  at  Missolonghi,  on  the  iQth  of  April.  Halleck, 
who  was  a  great  admirer  of  the  poet,  if  not  of  the  man, 
was  quite  overcome,  and  could  not  restrain  his  tears. 
He  walked  up  and  down  the  drawing-room  wringing 
his  hands,  saying,  with  brief  pauses  between  each  re 
mark  :  "  What  a  terrible  loss  to  literature  !  " — "  Byron 
dead,  and  I  did  not  see  him!  "—"All  Dryden's  best 
poems  were  written  when  he  was  past  forty,  and  poor 
Byron  to  be  taken  away  at  thirty-six !  " 


306  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

When  Edmund  Kean  visited  the  United  States  in 
1824,  he  erected  a  monument  in  St.  Paul's  churchyard, 
New  York,  to  the  memory  of  George  Frederick  Cooke, 
whom,  he  told  Halleck,  he  considered  the  greatest 
actor  of  modern  times,  Garrick  alone  excepted.  For 
the  tasteful  monument  raised  by  Kean,  the  poet  wrote, 
at  his  request,  the  inscription,  which  singularly  pleased 
the  great  actor.  Having  suffered  somewhat  by  the 
ravages  of  time,  Charles  Kean,  the  son  of  Edmund, 
caused  the  monument  to  be  repaired  during  his  last 
professional  visit  to  this  country. 

The  beautiful  lines  beginning 

Lady,  although  we  have  not  met, 
And  may  not  meet  beneath  the  sky ; 

And  whether  thine  are  eyes  of  jet, 

Gray,  or  dark -blue,  or  violet, 

Or  hazel — Heaven  knows,  not  I — 

were  written  in  the  album  of  an  unknown  lady,  during 
the  year  1824,  and  was  the  only  poem  composed  by 
Mr.  Halleck  in  that  year,  or  at  least  the  only  one  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn. 

In  the  "  Recollections  of  a  Lifetime,"  by  S.  C. 
Goodrich,  I  find  the  following  allusion  to  Mr.  Halleck 
and  another  promising  young  poet,  also  a  native  of 
Connecticut,  John  G.  C.  Brainard,  to  whom  the  former 
was  indebted  for  a  happy  idea  struck  out  by  him  in  his 
New- Year's  verse  on  the  same  theme,  for  his  pleasing 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  307 

stanzas  on  their  native  State.  Brainard  was,  says 
Goodrich,  "  a  special  admirer  of  Halleck,  and  more 
than  once  remarked  that  he  should  like  to  see  him.  I 
proposed  to  introduce  him;  but  he  was  shy  of  all 
formal  meetings,  and  seemed,  indeed,  to  feel  that  there 
would  be  a  kind  of  presumption  in  his  being  presented 
to  the  leading  poet  of  the  great  metropolis.  I  was, 
therefore,  obliged  to  give  up  the  idea  of  effecting  a 
meeting  between  these  two  persons,  both  natives  of 
Connecticut,  and  peculiarly  fitted  to  appreciate  and 
admire  each  other.  One  morning,  however,  fortune 
seemed  to  favor  us.  As  we  entered  the  bookstore  of 
Messrs.  Bliss  &  White — then  on  the  eastern  side  of 
Broadway,  near  Cedar  Street — I  saw  Halleck  at  the 
farther  end  of  the  room.  Incautiously,  I  told  this  to 
Brainard.  He  eagerly  asked  me  which  was  the  poet, 
among  two  or  three  persons  that  were  standing  to 
gether.  I  pointed  him  out.  Brainard  took  a  long  and 
earnest  gaze,  then  turned  on  his  heel,  and  I  could  not 
find  him  for  the  rest  of  the  day  I  " 

The  gentle  poet  of  the  Connecticut  River  was  a  sin 
gularly  diffident  man ;  of  extremely  small  stature,  and 
as  sensitive  on  that  score  as  was  a  much  greater  poet 
in  regard  to  his  club-foot. 

From  "  Horace  in  New  York  "  I  take  the  subjoined 
invocation  to  Halleck,  which  appears  with  the  following 
motto  from  Moore,  as  a  title :  "A  Bumper  to  Fanny." 
The  notes  as  well  as  the  verses  are  Mr.  Clason's  : 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  Ring  the  alarum-bell !  "  stout  Lenox  cried, 
When  Duncan's  silver  skin  with  blood  was  dyed  : 
"  Malcolm,  awake  !  "  came  forth  in  accents  deep, 
When  woman  leagued  with  man  to  murder  sleep. 

As  mad  and  wretched  as  the  faithful  chief; 
As  strong  in  honesty;  as  loud  in  grief; 
I  fill  the  night  air  with  the  tocsin  bell — 
And  ring  a  fright'ning  and  a  fun'ral  knell — 
A  knell  for  Poetry  : — her  shrine  profaned ; 
And  hurt  by  those  her  manna  has  sustained. 
Ring  the  alarum,  I  say — too  vexed  to  weep ; — 
HALLECK,  awake  !  shake  off  this  drowsy  sleep. 
Nay,  man,  no  modesty — no  shocks  of  shame  : 
I'll  have  a  starling,  sir,  shall  speak  thy  name. 
Must  eagles  hide,  while  owls  their  dull  wings  rear  ? 
Shake  off  this  sleep  !     Halleck,  I  say,  appear  ! 

The  awkward  squad  of  Poetry's  worst  drill, 
Spoil  what  they  laud,  and  ignorantly  kill. 
The  feet  of  fools  the  Muse's  temple  tread ; 
They  choke  the  lamp  their  ardor  should  have  fed ; 
With  silly  zeal  press  her  pure  altar  down ; 
Rush  on  her  footstool ;  shake  away  her  crown ; 
Keep  her  from  feeling  sunny  air  and  light ; 
And — mad  as  flashes  in  a  stormy  night — 
Instead  of  nobly  paying  homage  meet, 
Instead  of  laying  trophies  at  her  feet, 
They  let  their  spoils  upon  her  person  fall — 
And  make  her  canopy  her  funeral-pall. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  309 

E'en  those  who  should  enact  a  better  part, 

Who  have  the  scholar's  strength  and  poet's  heart, 

Who  ought  to  raise  the  rampart  of  the  mind, 

Let  their  brave  powers  be  cabined,  cribbed,  confined  ; 

Careless  of  rules,  they  pull  their  lyre's  loose  strings, 

And  fancy  music  if  the  brass  wire  rings. 

BRYANT,  within  whose  mind  a  crystal  shines, 

With  adjectives  and  fustian  fills  his  lines. 

While  PERCIVAL,  so  pleased  with  painted  things, 

Buoys  on  the  air  with  tinsel,  tawdry  wings  ; 

Blows  a  soft  bugle  over  flowery  ground, 

And  loses  sense  and  music  in  the  sound. 

PIERPONT,  whose  strength  a  blazing  flag  might  rear, 

And  give  us  thoughts  as  pure  as  childhood's  tear, 

E'en  Parson  Pierpont  glides,  a  gilded  snake, 

And  crawls  and  shines  as  if  but  half  awake  ; 

Sometimes,  we  see,  he  curves  his  hues  about ; 

But  yet,  'tis  lengthened  sweetness  long  drawn  out. 

There's  one  who  might  adorn  the  Muse's  rank, 

But  he  has  left  her  Temple  for  a  Bank  ; 

'Tis  WORTH,  who  now  upon  his  own  name  dotes, 

And  cashiers'  melody  to  count  his  notes.1 

(Poor  outcast  JUDAII  2  should  be  sent  to  nurse ; 

He  thinks  blank  nonsense  must  be  good  blank  verse.) 

Woodworth's  long,  rumbling  notes  in  songs  are  borne, 


1  This  gentleman  is  the  author  of  "Horace  in  Cincinnati." 

2  Mr.  Judah  is  the  author  of  a  poem  entitled  "  Odofriede,  or  the  Out 
cast."     Samuel  B.  Helmuth  Judah,  who  is  still  living  in  New  York,  is  also 
the  author  of  a  satire  entitled  "  Gotham  and  the  Gothamites,"  published  in 
1823,  for  which  libellous  production  both  the  writer  and  publisher  were  in 
carcerated  in  the  city  jail. 


310  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

And  all  alike — "hot  corn,  hot  corn,  hot  corn." 
Yet  these  I  can  submit  to : — but  the  shoal 
Of  senseless  skulls  offends  me  to  the  soul ; 
In  impudence  and  ignorance  they  come, 
And,  though  blue-bottles,  make  a  mighty  hum. 
Each  squashy-peasecod-New- York-schoolboy  prates  ; 
Young  Boston  bards  croak  worse  than  Boston-waites ;  ' 
E'en  very  spellers  give  a  mighty  roar ; 
Each  feels  a  lion,  though  he  is  a  boar ; 
While  ladies'  crow-quills  play  their  little  part, 
And  write   of  "love"   and    "dove,"   of   "heart"   and 
"dart." 

Faugh  !     thin  small  beer  !       HALLECK  —  HALLECK, 

come  forth  ! 

Come  like  the  borealis  of  the  north, 
A  beauteous  wonder.     Rise  and  wildly  shine  ! 
Rise  like  a  comet  in  the  night's  bright  mine  ; 
Making  the  upturned  eyes  of  mortals  gaze, 
And  leave  the  galaxy  to  track  thy  blaze. 
A  volunteer  within  Thalia's  train, 
Duty  decides  you  still  should  there  remain. 
The  British  Critic  justly  sneers  to  see, 
A  pitchy  void  within  our  melody : 
Let  not  the  scribe  full  fairly  point  his  dart, 
But  show  a  flame  can  from  bitumen  start. 
Wait  not  for  rules  which  Horace  made  of  yore ; 2 
Snatch  up  your  manuscript ;  unbar  your  door  ; 

1  "Boston-waites"  is  an  old  nickname  for  frogs — the  term  occurs,  I 
fancy,  in  Ray's  Proverbs. 

'2  "Nonumque  prematur  in  annum." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Put  in  bold  pica  your  own  neat  italic  ; 
And  be  no  longer  "Secretary  Halleck." 


311 


You've  found  the  silver  nib  of  Byron's  pen ; 
Prove  that  its  iron  stem  can  plough  again. 
The  last  touch  of  the  chisel  you  have  shown  ; 
Prove  that  the  block  you  work  on  is  your  own. 
Wake  every  nerve ;  and  let  us  something  view, 
As  smooth  as  marble,  and  as  lasting  too. 
Want  you  a  theme  ?  ah,  no  !  exhaustless  roll, 
Mysterious  beauties  o'er  the  poet's  soul. 
He  seeks  the  sea,  earth,  sky,  his  scenes  to  aid : 
While  God's  own  finger's  on  his  fire-tongue  laid. 
In  every  flower  he  sees  Megarian  bee ; 
While  gems  shine  forth  in  many  a  trembling  tree. 
He  gains  bright  thoughts  from  spangles  in  the  storm ; 
Each  em'rald  wave  turns  up  a  siren's  form ; 
O'er  the  Atlantic's  million  billows  dark, 
He  cuts  a  white  track  for  the  crackling  bark. 
Thinks  he  of  lonely  isle  where  wild-fowl  flock; — 
He  hears  the  sea-weed  flap  against  the  rock. 
Let  the  bard  seek  the  broad-spread,  stilly  wood, 
Where  nature's  beauties  grow  in  solitude ; 
'His  mem'ry's  ear  will  catch  the  dew-drops  fall, 
As  bright  birds  flutter,  and  the  cobras  crawl.1 
His  fancy  see  the  Indian's  wild  eyes  shine, 
From  the  green  cave,  as  rubies  in  a  mine. 


1  The  critic  may  fancy  this  a  queer  sort  of  solitude :  Cowper's  poem 
of  Selkirk  is  open  to  similar  observation. 


3I2  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Should  his  soothed  sight  his  own  savannas  view, 
Blushing  in  autumn's -tint,  and  twilight's  hue  ; 
The  joys  of  home  within  his  mind's  eye  rove, 
And  soothe  like  sunbeams  in  a  shady  grove. 
If  to  the  hills  he  sends  his  condor-glance, 
The  rifles  ring,  and  make  the  echoes  dance ; 
Each  height  seems  bristled  with  a  noble  band, 
Defenders  of  their  rich  primeval  land — 
A  noble  band  filled  high  with  manly  words, 
And  manly  daring  strong  as  their  true  swords, 
Ready  to  let  the  turf  they  lately  trod, 
Grow  fresher,  nurtured  by  their  own  heart's-blood ; 
Ready  to  trust  their  lives,  their  cause,  to  their  protect 
ing  God.1 

A  glory  like  the  sun's  the  poet  feels. 
His  own  light  on  himself  a  beauty  wheels  j 
Yet,  while  he  knows  he  has  this  rich  resource, 
Many  enjoy  and  praise  his  splendid  course. 

1  I  was  desirous  of  inserting,  at  this  place,  the  following  nervous  lines 
from  the  Pursuits  of  Literature;  in  order  to  give  a  finish  to  No.  VII.  But, 
upon  consideration,  I  thought  my  verses  would  suffer  less  by  adding  the 
extract  to  this  note : 

"  Such  is  the  poet:  bold,  without  confine, 
Imagination's  'chartered  libertine.' 
He  scorns,  in  apathy,  to  float  or  dream 
On  listless  satisfaction's  torpid  stream, 
But  dares  ALONE  in  vent'rous  bark  to  ride 
Down  turbulent  Delight's  tempestuous  tide ; 
While  thoughts  encount'ring  thoughts  in  conflict  fierce, 
Tumultuous  rush,  and  labor  into  verse, 
Then,  as  the  swelling  numbers  round  him  roll, 
Stamps  on  th'  immortal  page  the  visions  of  his  soul." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  313 

Blessing  and  blest  his  high  meridian  glows, 
He  sets  in  greater  richness  than  he  rose. 
And  e'en  when  'gone  beneath  this  mortal  scene, 
His  place  of  dying  smiles  in  pearly  sheen. 
Eternal  as  the  sun  his  fame  will  stand ; 
Forever  burning,  breathing  in  the  land. 

Who  would  not  rather  have  a  Shakespeare's  fame, 
Than  Gresham's  wealth,  and  Montmorency's  name  ?  l 
Or,  be  a  Milton,  pennyless  and  blind, 
Than  have  the  praises  heaped  on  Cromwell's  mind  ? 
The  son  of  Philip,  midst  the  battle's  dead, 
Slept  with  old  Homer's  scroll  beneath  his  head.2 

What  were  known  as  the  New- York  Conspiracy 
Trials  of  1826,  in  which  the  then  District  Attorney 
charged  the  poet's  friends,  Jacob  Barker,  Henry  Eck- 
ford,  and  others,  with  conspiring,  through  the  medium 
of  insurance  and  other  companies  with  which  they  were 
connected,  to  defraud  the  public,  and  who  were  in  Mr. 
Halleck's  judgment  innocent,  and  persecuted  in  a  vin 
dictive  and  remorseless  manner  by  the  relentless  young 
limb  of  the  law,  drew  down  upon  him  the  following 
philippic,  which  was  circulated  at  the  time  among  a 
small  circle  of  chosen  friends,  but  never,  until  now, 
published.  The  poet  called  it  "  Billingsgate  McSwell :  " 


1  It  is  said  the  Montmorency  family  can  trace  its  descent  from  the  Ho- 
ratii.     I  have  no  objection : — Adam  was  a  relation  of  mine. 
3  For  this,  consult  Plutarch. 


3 14  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Ye  gentlemen  and  ladies  all 

That  reverence  the  law, 
Come,  listen  to  the  law's  own  bird, 

That  holds  it  in  his  claw. 
I  who  am  famed  for  turning  tail, 

And  have  a  tale  to  tell, 
Am  a  tale-bearer,  and  my  name 

Is  Billingsgate  McSwell. 

At  twenty,  for  a  brawly  crime, 

They  placed  me  at  the  bar ; 
They  tried,  convicted,  punished  me, 

The  brand  has  left  its  scar. 
I  had  made  the  sacred  house  of  prayer 

Ring  with  the  rabble's  yell, 
I  had  trampled  on  her  broken  pews, 

I,  Billingsgate  McSwell ! 

Thus  taught  acquaintance  with  the  bar, 

I  made  the  bar  my  trade, 
And,  after  having  broke  the  law, 

I  practised  it  for  bread. 
For  the  profession  I  was  found 

In  fitting  mind  and  state, 
From  bully  to  attorney  the 

Transition  is  not  great. 

Then  glorying  in  my  impudence, 
My  only  reputation, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

I  joined  the  Federalists  and  made 
Speeches  about  the  nation. 

'  Show  me  a  Democrat"  my  words 
Are  yet  remembered  well, 

;  And  I "* II  show  you  a  scoundrel"  thus 
Said  Billingsgate  McSwell. 

When  once  in  office  snugly  fixed, 

I  could  not  fail  to  rise, 
For  few  have  such  a  face  as  mine, 

Or  such  a  pair  of  eyes. 
And  then  my  voice — it  blends  all  tones 

That  to  the  heart  appeal, 
The  jackass,  owl,  and  guinea-hen, 

Cock-turkey,  and  cart-wheel. 

And  now  I'm  master  of  the  law, 

Its  hangman  and  its  rope, 
And  in  infallibility 

His  Holiness  the  Pope ; 
And  since  that  kind  protecting  power, 

Impunity,  was  mine, 
I've  been  a  wholesale  dealer  in 

The  Inquisition  line. 

But  soon  deserting  and  turned  rat, 

On  Democrats  I  called, 
And,  like  Sir  Pertinax,  I  boo'ed, 

And,  like  a  worm,  I  crawled, 
And  told  them,  when  before  mine  eyes 

They  placed  my  traitor  fee, 


315 


*         -  / 

316  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  Once  I  was  blind"  my  worthy  friends, 
"But  new,"  you  see,  "  I  see." 

For  I  do  hate  your  ugly  wounds 

From  gunpowder  and  ball ; 
A  kick  upon  one's  pantaloons 

Is  not  much,  after  all. 
Nor  is  a  cowskin  much — I  know 

Their  stings  extremely  well, 
For  few  have  felt  them  oftener 

Than  Billingsgate  McSwell. 

But  all  my  fears  of  these  are  gone, 

I  am,  'tis  now  well  known,  a 
Great  coward,  ex-officio, 

And  in  propria  persona. 
Woe  to  the  citizen  who  dares 

To  ask  me  if  I'm  brave, 
There's  not  a  grand-juryman 

But  feels  himself  my  slave  ! 

And  I  can  slander,  stain,  insult, 

In  my  own  natural  way, 
And  kill  my  victims  in  cold  blood, 

Fair  semblance  and  foul  play. 
I'm  now  attorney,  bailiff,  judge, 

Informer,  witness,  spy, 
In  short,  a  public  officer 

'Gainst  whom  no  suit  can  lie. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  317 

What  though  gray  Scandal  prates  about 

An  actress,  play-house  scenes, 
"  Fair,  fat,  and  forty,"  and  all  that, 

I  care  not  what  she  means. 
A  public  officer  cannot 

Rude,  weak,  or  wicked  be, 
A  public  officer  cannot 

Commit  adultery. 

In  Britain's  monarch-governed  isle 

"  No  titled  fool  or  knave," 
While  satire  breathes,  "  can  walk  the  world 

In  credit  to  his  grave." 
But  here,  thank  Heaven,  we  are  free, 

Here  law  can  titles  give 
That  screen  her  cowards,  knaves,  and  fools, 

A  blest  prerogative. 

I  make,  and  I  unmake,  the  laws, 

I  also  make  the  crimes ; 
I  make  for  courts  and  constables, 

And  lawyers,  golden  times. 
I  make  the  causes,  and  the  judge 

And  jury  that  must  try  them  ; 
I  make  the  people  fools,  and  make 

A  deal  of  money  by  them. 

"  Full  many  a  flower,"  the  poets  sing, 

"  Is  born  to  blush  unseen," 

But  I,  who  never  blush,  am  not 

The  flower  the  poets  mean. 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

For  lately  I  received  a  note, 
Addressed  to  me  by  name, 

And  read  it  with  my  loudest  voice, 
That  trumpet  of  my  fame. 

Yes,  read  it  to  my  wondering  friends 

At  corners  of  the  streets ; 
Ordered  it  to  be  printed,  and 

Corrected  the  proof-sheets. 
These  are  its  words — the  writer  seems 

To  know  his  subject  well ; 
It  is  a  portrait  to  the  life 

Of  Billingsgate  McSwell  : 

That  you'' re  a  SCOUNDREL,  sir,  is  now 

As  clear  as  sky  at  noon, 
A  base,  dishonored  VILLAIN,  and 

Contemptible  POLTROON  ; 
The  scorn,  the  SHAME,  of  all  that  sit 

Around  your  household  fire, 
Of  mother,  sister,  "wife,  and  babes 

That  blush  to  call  you  sire." 

The  above  is  a  true  copy, 

As  I  hereby  certify, 
And  he  who  wrote  it  lives  and  smiles 

Daily  before  mine  eye. 
Such  letters  have  been  writ  before, 

But  who  till  now  e'er  heard 
Of  one  received  and  published  by 

A  man  that  wears  a  beard  ? 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  319 

England,  for  gallant  deeds  of  arms, 

Made  princes  of  her  Howards, 
And  I  by  other  deeds  have  made 

Myself  the  prince  of  cowards. 
In  one  respect,  my  friend  the  Prince 

Of  Darkness  I  excel — 
He  never  "sported  the  white  feather," 

Like  Billingsgate  McSwell. 

In  February,  1827,  there  was  published  in  New 
York  a  thin  8vo  volume,  entitled  "  Alnwick  Castle  and 
other  Poems,"  but  without  the  author's  name.  Refer 
ence  to  this  collection  of  his  poetical  writings  is  made 
by  Mr.  Halleck  in  the  following  letter  : 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  May  31,  1827. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  requested  the  editor  of 
the  Albion,  an  English  newspaper  published  here,  to 
send  you  his  paper  for  one  year.  Its  selections  are 
very  good,  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  glean  much 
amusement  from  it.  He  has  done  me  some  kind 
nesses,  and  I  deemed  subscribing  to  his  paper  the 
most  acceptable  way  of  repaying  them. 

I  received  your  letter  of  the  2d  instant,  and  am 
pleased  to  learn  that  your  health  is  good,  and  improv 
ing.  Mine  is  but  tolerable.  I  have  occasional  at 
tacks  of  giddiness,  the  necessary  result  of  a  regular  life 
of  mental  employment  unaccompanied  with  sufficient 


320  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

bodily  exercise,  but,  on  the  whole,  I  have,  as  to  health, 
no  right  to  complain. 

You  appear  to  suppose  that  if  I  had  known  Miss 

B 's  address  I  should  not  have  called  on  her.     This 

supposition  is,  doubtless,  grounded  on  my  unsocial 
habits  and  love  of  solitude  and  quietness.  But  the  fact 
is,  that  during  the  past  winter  I  have  been,  to  my 
own  astonishment,  quite  a  ladies'  man,  a  particularly 
fashionable  person.  I  scarcely  know  how  I  got  into 
the  whirlpool,  but  I  did  get  in  in  the  early  part  of  the 
season,  and  find  it  impossible  to  get  out  until  the 
season  is  over.  My  name  is  on  the  visiting-list  of 
all  our  ultra-fashionables,  and  I  have  received,  on  an 
average,  a  dozen  invitations  per  week  to  parties,  balls, 
etc.  They  do  not  interfere  either  with  business  or 
other  daily  pursuits,  for  a  party  does  not  begin  until 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening.  It  is  pleasant  enough 
while  one  is  there,  but,  to  an  indolent  person,  hardly 
enough  so  to  compensate  for  the  trouble  of  dressing. 
I  have  become,  for  it  is  soon  learned,  quite  au  fait  in 
the  small-talk  of  society,  and  can  say  as  much  about 
nothing  at  all  as  if  I  had  been  taught  by  a  lady- 
patroness  of  Almack's.  However,  the  season  is  nearly 
over,  and  I  shall,  if  not  forgotten  by  the  next  year, 
invent  some  excuse  for  declining  all  future  civilities 
in  this  way.  The  last  season  has  been  really  a  car 
nival,  in  consequence  of  a  number  of  weddings,  some 
twenty  or  thirty,  among  "the  aristocracy,"  "the  haut 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  33 1 

ton"  for  such  there  are  in  all  towns,  cities,  and  villages 
in  the  world,  no  matter  under  what  governments.  But 
those  who  have  country-seats  will  visit  them  in  the 
course  of  the  month  of  June,  and  those  who  have  not 
will  lounge  at  the  watering-places,  for  it  is  nearly 
as  horrid  a  thing  to  be  seen  in  town  here  in  the 
month  of  July  as  in  London  in  the  month  of  October. 
Apropos,  I  sent  several  dozens  of  my  last  published 
poems  to  several  dozen  ladies,  at  whose  houses  I  had 
danced  or  dined.  It  seems  they  thought  it  a  becom 
ing  compliment  to  get  them  elegantly  bound,  and 
I  have  unwittingly  put  them  to  an  expense  of  five 
dollars  apiece  for  binding.  No  matter,  it  encourages 
the  bookbinders.  From  these  premises,  as  the  lawyers 
say,  I  think  it  reasonable  to  infer  that  I  might  have 

called  on  Miss  B ,  had  I  known  her  address,  but 

do  not  say  that  I  promise  to  do  so,  because  I  may 
change  my  mind.  *  *  *  . 

Yours  affectionately, 

FlTZ-GREENE. 

Among  the  many  notes  received  by  the  poet  from 
the  ladies  to  whom  he  presented  copies  of  his  poems, 
was  the  following  from  his  gifted  friend,  Catherine 
Maria  Sedgwick,  the  authoress  of  "Redwood"  and 
other  New -England  stories:  "Miss  Sedgwick  begs 
Mr.  Halleck's  acceptance  of  a  copy  of  '  Hope  Leslie,' 
not  in  exchange  as  a  return  for  the  book  Mr.  H. 
H* 


222  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

was  so  good  as  to  send  to  her,  for  Miss  S.  does 
not  delude  herself  with  the  idea  that  a  stone,  though 
it  be  as  big  as  a  rock,  is  an  equivalent  for  a  dia 
mond." 

Halleck  did  not  belong  to  the  school  of  rapid 
writers,  nor  did  he  imitate  the  general  fault  of  the 
poets  of  that  school,  who,  almost  without  an  exception, 
write  too  much.  Gray's  "Elegy"  will  outlive  Lope 
de  Vega's  dramas,  which  are  numbered  by  thousands, 
and  who  wrote  more  than  a  hundred  of  them,  as  he 
says  himself,  each  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours. 

"  Pues  mas  de  ciento  en  horas  veinte  y  cuatro 
Pasaron  de  las  musas  al  teatro." 

Several  of  Halleck's  poems  will,  like  the  verses  of 
Gray,  be  remembered  when  the  writings  of  the  prolific 
Spaniard,  the  six-canto  lays  of  Scott,  and  the  six-week 
epics  of  Southey,  are  rarely,  if  ever,  read.  The  art 
which  Boileau  boasted  that  he  had  taught  Moliere — 
that  of  writing  easy  verses  with  difficulty — was  an  art 
of  which  Halleck  was  master.  This,  as  is  well  known, 
is  the  only  kind  of  easy  writing  which  is  not  found  to 
be  very  hard  reading. 

"Red  Jacket"  was  composed  more  rapidly  than 
any  other  of  Mr.  Halleck's  poems  of  similar  length, 
having  been  written  in  two  days  for  the  Talisman,  a 
small  illustrated  annual  published  by  Elam  Bliss  in 
1828.  There  were  two  subjects  given  to  him  from 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  323 

which  to  choose— "  Weehawken  "  and  "  Red  Jacket." 
Halleck  selected  the  latter,  and  wrote  the  poem  to 
accompany  the  spirited  picture  of  the  Indian  warrior 
painted  by  Robert  W.  Weir.  Alluding  to  Halleck's 
"Red  Jacket,"  an  eloquent  writer,  some  thirty  years 
since,  said :  "  It  is  one  of  those  lofty  and  fervid  effu 
sions  that  one  reads  to  remember.  The  author's 
humorous  propensity  creeps  out  in  it  occasionally ;  but 
as  a  whole  it  is  magnificently  done.  There  is  a 
pathetic  under-song  in  this  production  which  leaves 
its  echo  in  the  heart.  The  author  has  represented 
Red  Jacket  very  much  to  the  life ;  though  the  trans 
atlantic  allusions  might  have  been  well  dispensed  with. 
That  noble  old  chief  had  a  spice  of  the  philosopher 
about  him,  which  would  have  done  honor  to  the  wiliest 
potentate  that  ever  bent  the  million  to  his  beck  or 
swayed  a  party  with  his  nod.  There  was  a  natural 
grandeur  about  him,  forest-born ;  the  air  that  circulates 
over  interminable  wildernesses,  and  sweeps  in  freedom 
across  inland  seas,  was  the  vital  element  for  which  his 
free  nostrils  thirsted ;  the  perfume  that  goes  up  to  the 
sky  from  vast  reservations,  as  it  went  from  the  flowery 
tops  of  Carmel  in  the  olden  time,  was  his  chosen  ele 
ment  of  respiration ;  the  anthem  for  his  ear  was  Niagara. 
We  can  readily  believe  that  he  admired  his  own  un 
trammelled  way  of  life ;  revered  the  Great  Manitou ;  and, 
perhaps,  loved  the  fire-water,  which  drowned  the  mem 
ory  of  his  wrongs.  In  a  part  of  his  tenets  he  had  wis- 


224  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

dom  on  his  side.  The  man  who  chooses  to  run  wild 
in  woods,  a  noble  savage,  can  find  many  enlightened 
wights  in  the  purlieus  of  Christendom  to  bear  him  out 
in  his  partialities.  The  dress  of  Red  Jacket,  in  his 
primitive  condition,  was  of  the  simplest  kind.  He  was 
not  in  the  straitened  tailor-owing  condition  of  many  of 
the  present  day.  '  I  have  thatched  myself  over,'  says 
a  modern  European  writer,  perhaps  in  the  predicament 
just  hinted  at,  'with  the  dead  fleeces  of  sheep,  the 
bark  of  vegetables,  the  entrails  of  worms,  the  hides  of 
oxen  or  seals,  the  entrails  of  furred  beasts ;  and  walk 
abroad  a  moving  rag-screen,  overheaped  with  shreds 
and  tatters  raked  from  the  charnel-house  of  nature.' 
In  his  best  days  Red  Jacket  had  no  fancy  for  integu 
ments  like  these;  and  his  bard  should  not  have 
stooped  to  compare  his  dress  at  any  time  with  that 
of  '  George  the  Fourth  at  Brighton ; '  for  Halleck  is 
a  man  who  cannot  easily  conceal  from  himself  the  fact 
that  there  are  noblemen  of  nature — and  that  a  draw 
ing-room,  whether  of  the  British  monarch,  or  of  le 
Roi  Citoyen,  is  simply  a  section  of  infinite  space, 
where  so  many  God-created  souls  do  for  the  time  meet 
together." 

The  poetical  epistle  beginning  "Dear  *  *  *  I  am 
writing  not  to  you  but  «/you,"  was  composed  in  1828,  as 
were  the  "  Lines  to  the  Recorder,"  which  first  appeared 
in  the  columns  of  the  Evening  Post,  prefaced  with  the 
following  remarks  by  Mr.  Bryant:  "There  is  a  won- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  335 

derful  freshness  and  youthfulness  of  imagination  in  the 
following  epistle  for  a  septuagenarian,  if  not  an  octo 
genarian,  poet,  as  the  writer  must  be  if  we  are  to  judge 
from  the  chronology  of  his  initial  lines.  He  has  lost 
nothing  of  the  grace  and  playfulness  which  might  have 
belonged  to  his  best  years.  The  sportive  irony  of  the 
piece  will  amuse  our  readers,  and  offend  nobody.  In 
deed,  we  are  not  sure  but  a  part  of  this  is  directed 
against  ourselves ;  but,  as  Mr.  Castaly  has  chosen  to 
cover  it  up  with  dashes,  it  might  imply  too  great  a 
jealousy  of  our  dignity  to  make  the  application,  and  to 
mutilate  the  poem,  by  omitting  any  part,  is  contrary 
to  the  strict  charge  of  the  writer,  who  insists  upon  our 
publishing  the  whole  or  none." 

A.  Oakey  Hall,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Halleck,  dated 
July  13,  1863,  says :  "  Permit  me  to  enclose  to  you  a 
photograph  of  a  man  whom  you  did  much  toward 
immortalizing,  ex-Recorder  Riker.  It  is  not  a  super- 
excellent,  one,  because  of  the  disadvantages  under 
which  it  was  taken.  I  found  in  the  Golden  memorial 
of  the  Erie-Canal  celebration  a  steel  engraving  of  Mr. 
Riker,  and  sent  it  to  a  photographist.  Hence  the 
picture.  Excuse  my  intrusion ;  but  I  never  hear  the 
name  of  Riker  mentioned  without  immediately  asso 
ciating  '  The  Croakers,'  '  Fanny,'  and  the  household 
word  of  Halleck  with  him.  And,  in  obtaining  the 
head,  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  satisfaction  to  know  that 
I  had  strengthened  the  chain  of  that  association  by 


326  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

allowing  myself  to  forge  this  photographic  link  and 
enclose  it  by  post."  Mr.  Halleck  acknowledged  the 
gift  in  the  following  letter  : 

[TO   A.    OAKEY  HALL.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  July  21,  1863. 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  very  grateful  for  the  compliment 
your  letter  pays  me,  and  for  a  gift  so  interesting  in 
itself,  and  so  pleasantly  proving  your  kind  recollection 
of  me  and  mine. 

The  photograph,  as  you  observe,  does  not  do  the 
Recorder  justice,  for,  although  showing  successfully 
his  remarkably  fine  forehead,  it  gives  us  no  idea  of 
the  play  of  his  features,  which,  as  you  doubtless  re 
member,  were  in  their  expression,  when  lit  up  by  a 
merry  thought  or  an  impulse  of  manly  courtesy,  as 
fascinating  as  his  characteristic  bow. 

I  had  the  honor  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with 
him  before  making  him  the  theme  of  the  sportive  lines 
you  allude  to,  and  that  acquaintance  became  afterward 
more  and  more  cordial,  as  he  learned  how  highly — 

"  In  his  happier  hour, 
Of  social  pleasure  ill  exchanged  for  power  " — 

I  respected  and  esteemed  him ;  and  he  kindly  bore 
with  me  for  selecting  one  in  his  high  position  as  an 
"  office-holder,"  to  do  duty  as  a  vicarious  sufferer  for 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  327 

the  sins  of  the  whole  "  class,"  in  the  consciousness 
of  my  knowledge  of  his  own  individual  blameless- 
ness. 

Let  us  hope  that  all  our  public  men,  seeking  as  he 
sought,  and  winning  as  he  won,  honorable  distinction 
in  a  political  career,  may  find  no  arrows  aimed  at  them 
by  that  "  chartered  libertine,"  the  press,  more  en 
venomed  than  those  forged  for  a  playful  and  ephemeral 
purpose  in  the  pleasant  armory  of  song;  and  that  each 
one  of  them  may  be  remembered  hereafter,  as  Mr. 
Riker  now  is,  for  noble  qualities  of  head  and  heart, 
and  the  cultivated  mind  and  manners  of  a  scholar  and 
a  gentleman. 

Repeating  my  thanks  for  your  courtesy,  I  beg  you 
to  believe  me,  dear  sir,  most  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

When  Halleck,  in  the  "  Recorder,"  said  of  New  York 
forty  years  ago,  "  Our  fourteen  wards  contain  some 
seven-and- thirty  bards,"  he  rather  underrated  than  ex 
aggerated  the  fact ;  but  except  himself  there  is  scarcely 
one  of  the  number  whose  now-forgotten  stanzas  are 
ever  read,  those  of  Bryant  and  Drake  alone  excepted. 
To  the  former  he  renders  a  richly-deserved  compli 
ment,  when  he  says  : 

BRYANT,  whose  songs  are  thoughts  that  bless 
The  heart,  its  teachers,  and  its  joy, 


328  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

As  mothers  blend  with  their  caress 
Lessons  of  truth  and  gentleness 

And  virtue  for  the  listening  boy. 
Spring's  lovelier  flowers  for  many  a  day 
Have  blossomed  on  his  wandering  way, 
Beings  of  beauty  and  decay, 

They  slumber  in  their  autumn  tomb ; 
But  those  that  graced  his  own  Green  River, 

And  wreathed  the  lattice  of  his  home, 

Charmed  by  his  song  from  mortal  doom, 
Bloom  on,  and  will  bloom  on  forever. 

How  beautifully,  in  the  same  poem,  Halleck,  after 
playfully  alluding  to  a  poet's  death,  as 

the  debt,  the  only  one 
A  poet  ever  pays, 

speaks  in  tender  and  most  touching  words  of  his  own  : 

But  many  are  my  years,  and  few 
Are  left  me  in  nigh't's  holy  dew, 
And  sorrow's  holier  tears  will  keep 
The  grass  green  when  in  death  I  sleep. 

And  when  that  grass  is  green  above  me, 
And  those  who  bless  me  now  and  love  me 

Are  sleeping  by  my  side, 
Will  it  avail  me  aught  that  men 
Tell  to  the  world  with  lip  and  pen 

That  once  I  lived  and  died  ? 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  329 

No  !  i,f  a  garland  for  my  brow 
Is  growing,  let  me  have  it  now, 

While  I'm  alive  to  wear  it ; 
And  if,  in.  whispering  my  name, 
There's  music  in  the  voice  of  fame 

Like  Garcia' s,  let  me  hear  it ! 

Was  ever  a  more  beautiful  compliment  paid  to  a 
singer,  than  the  poet  renders  to  his  friend  Felicia  Gar 
cia,  in  the  last  line  of  the  above  stanzas  ? 

"  This  period  (1819)  of  the  existence  of  the  Evening 
Post  was  illuminated  by  the  appearance  of  the  poems 
of  Drake  and  Halleck  in  its  columns,  under  the  signa 
ture  of  '  Croaker'  and  '  Croaker  &  Co.,'  in  which 
the  fashions  and  follies,  and  sometimes  the  politicians 
of  the  day,  were  made  the  subjects  of  a  graceful  and 
good-natured  ridicule.  The  numbers  containing  these 
poems  were  eagerly  sought  for  ;  the  town  laughed,  the 
subjects  of  the  satire  laughed  in  chorus,  and  all  thought 
them  the  best  things  of  the  kind  ever  written ;  nor 
were  they  far  wrong.  At  a  subsequent  period  within 
the  past  twenty-five  years,  another  poem,  which,  though 
under  a  different  signature,  might  be  called  the  Epi 
logue  to  the  '  Croakers, '  was  contributed  by  Mr. 
Halleck  to  the  paper.  It  was  addressed  to  the  Honor 
able  Richard  Riker,  Recorder,  better  known  as  Dick 
Riker.  This  poem,  with  the  marks  of  a  riper  intellect, 
is  as  witty  as  the  best  of  '  The  Croakers.'  "  l  - 

1  "Reminiscences  of  the  Evening  Post,"  New  York,  1851. 


o^o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Early  in  January,  1828,  George  P.  Morris  one  day 
met  William  Leggett,  not  at  that  time  connected  with 
the  Evening  Post,  and  asked  him  to  write  for  the  New- 
York  Mirror  a  series  of  biographies  of  prominent 
American  poets.  " Certainly,"  said  Leggett,  "if  you 
will  give  me  the  facts ;  "  to  which  Morris  replied : 
"  Damn  it,  write  the  lives  and  omit  the  facts."  A  week 
after  their  interview,  there  appeared  in  the  Mirror, 
dated  January  26th,  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Leggett, 
sketches  of  James  G.  Brooks,  William  Cullen  Bryant, 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  Washington  Irving,  James  G. 
Percival,  John  Pierpont,  Edward  C.  Pinckney,  Charles 
Sprague,  and  Samuel  Woodworth.  I  reprint  the  third 
of  the  series,  only  altering  a  few  incorrect  dates  : 

"  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  was  born  July,  1790,  in  Guil- 
ford,  Connecticut,  where  he  resided  until  the  year  1811. 
At  a  very  early  period  of  his  life,  the  bias  of  his  mind 
toward  poetry  was  evinced  by  various  metrical  effusions, 
represented  to  us  as  having  possessed  uncommon  merit, 
as  juvenile  productions  ;  but  all  of  which,  we  are  sorry 
to  add,  have  been  destroyed  by  their  author.  It  would 
have  been  highly  gratifying  to  peruse  these  precocious 
ebullitions  of  genius,  and  to  trace  in  them  the  faint 
glimmerings  of  that  light  of  song,  which  has  since 
brightened  into  such  unusual  splendor.  Whatever  re 
lates  to  the  early  efforts  of  those  who  are  destined  to 
become,  in  any  way,  (  a  nation's  glory,'  possesses  deep 
moral  interest ;  and  it  is  not  only  pleasing,  but  profit- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  33! 

able,  to  watch  the  unfoldings  of  such  a  mind  as  Hal- 
leek's,  and  note  its  first  struggles  to  give  language  to 
feelings,  created  by  '  all  various  nature  pressing  on  the 
heart.'  One  of  the  effusions  of  his  youthful  muse,  but 
of  a  later  date  than  those  to  which  we  have  alluded, 
was  published  in  a  New- York  paper,  in  1813,  when  the 
author  was  twenty-three  years  of  age.  This  may,  per 
haps,  be  recovered ;  though  it  is  much  to  be  feared, 
from  the  ephemeral  nature  of  the  publication  in  which 
it  appeared,  that,  like  the  others,  it  has  passed  away 
into  oblivion. 

"  The  thought-inspiring  stillness  of  a  country  life, 
and  the  romantic  character  of  the  scenery  around  his 
birthplace,  tended,  in  no  small  degree,  to  nourish  the 
poetic  germ,  of  the  possession  of  which  Mr.  Halleck 
gave  such  early  evidence.  In  the  poem  entitled  '  Con 
necticut,'  he  has  shown  how  highly  and  how  justly  he 
appreciated  the  beauties  of  his  native  State,  and  how 
indelibly  they  are  imprinted  on  his  memory.  To  use 
his  own  impressive  language  : 

'  Her  clear,  warm  heaven  at  noon,  the  mist  that  shrouds 
Her  twilight  hills,  her  cool  and  starry  eves, 

The  glorious  splendor  of  her  sunset  clouds, 
The  rainbow  beauty  of  her  forest-leaves, 

Come  o'er  the  eye,  in  solitude  and  crowds, 
Where'er  his  web  of  song  her  poet  weaves  ; 

And  in  his  mind's  brightest  vision  but  displays 

The  autumn  scenery  of  his  boyhood's  days.' 


232  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  Mr.  Halleck  came  to  this 
city,  where  he  has  since  resided  ;  and  has  produced,  on 
various  occasions,  some  of  the  sweetest  and  noblest 
lyric,  and  some  of  the  most  pungent  and  caustic  satiri 
cal  poems,  to  be  found  in  the  language.  In  March, 
1819,  the  '  Croakers,'  a  series  of  Pindaric  odes,  in  which 
the  follies  and  extravagances  of  society  were  lashed 
with  infinite  pleasantry  and  humor,  made  their  appear 
ance  in  the  Evening  Post.  The  curiosity  of  the  town 
was  greatly  excited  to  know  by  whom  they  had  been 
written ;  and  they  were  ascribed,  at  different  times,  to 
various  literary  gentlemen,  while  the  real  authors 
passed,  for  a  long  while,  entirely  unsuspected. 

"  In  the  production  of  these  delightful  satires,  there 
was  associated  with  Mr.  Halleck  a  gentleman  who  is 
now  no  more — Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  a  scholar,  a  wit, 
and  a  poet.  '  The  American  Flag,' an  ode  which  all 
our  readers  must  be  acquainted  with,  is  the  production 
of  his  pen.  He  was  gifted  with  an  exalted  genius,  and 
gave  promise  of  great  poetic  excellence.  Besides  his 
share  in  the  '  Croakers,'  and  the  beautiful  lyric  we  have 
just  named,  he  left  behind  the  manuscript  of  a  fanciful 
and  imaginative  poem,  in*  two  cantos,  called  '  The 
Culprit  Fay.'  It  is  a  production  of  much  merit  and 
beauty,  and  we  cannot  but  regret  that  it  is  withheld 
from  the  public.  Mr.  Drake  died  of  a  consumption,  in 
September,  1820.  It  was  on  the  death  of  this  gen 
tleman,  with  whom  Mr.  Halleck  was  on  terms  of  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  333 

closest  intimacy  and  friendship,  that  he  wrote  those 
sweet  elegiac  lines  commencing — 

'  Green  be  the  turf  above  thee.' 

"  '  Fanny,'  the  next  production  of  our  author,  was 
published  in  December,  1819.  This  is  the  longest  of 
his  poems,  and  the  one,  perhaps,  which  entitles  him  to 
most  praise.  It  is  an  exquisite  compound  of  playful 
humor,  light  satire,  and  tender  sentiment ;  and  no  one 
has  ever  read  it  without  according  to  the  writer  a  high 
rank  among  the  poets  of  this  country.  It  was  but  three 
weeks  from  the  time  the  work  was  commenced,  until  it 
issued  from  the  press.  He  who  writes  with  such  ease 
and  rapidity,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so  sweetly,  can 
scarcely  be  excused  if  he  writes  but  little  ;  though  the 
condition  of  that  poet  is  truly  enviable,  who,  like  Mr. 
Halleck,  is  censured,  not  for  what  he  has  written,  but 
because  he  has  written  no  more.  In  February  of  the 
year  1821,  a  second  edition  of  'Fanny,'  with  altera 
tions  and  additions,  was  published. 

"We  now  come  to  'Alnwick  Castle,  with  other 
Poems,'  a  volume  which  comprises,  with  what  we  have 
already  mentioned,  all  the  productions  which  Mr.  Hal 
leck  has  yet  given  to  the  public.  It  was  published  in 
January,  1827,  but  most  of  the  pieces  which  it  contains 
had  previously  appeared  in  various  periodical  miscella 
nies.  The  name  of  the  work  is  derived  from  the  title 


234  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of  the  poem  that  stands  first  in  the  collection,  which 
was  written  during  a  visit  to  Europe,  in  1822  and  1823. 
'  Marco  Bozzaris,'  a  poem  which  has  been  so  widely 
copied,  so  generally  read,  and  so  highly  admired,  that 
we  cannot  suppose  any  reader  ignorant  of  its  beauties, 
occupies  the  second  place.  The  remaining  pages  are 
filled  with  other  'bright  gems  of  thought,'  from  the 
same  rich  intellectual  mine. 

"  As  a  poet,  Mr.  Halleck  ranks  very  high.  He  has 
not  written  much,  but  what  he  has  written  is  almost 
faultless.^  If  tenderness  and  warmth  of  feeling,  play 
fulness  of  fancy,  imagery,  not  abundant,  but  appro 
priate,  and  great  copiousness,  and  invariable  euphony 
of  language,  constitute  a  claim  to  excellence,  his  effu 
sions  are  excellent.  There  is  one  censure — we  have 
already  named  it — in  which  all  concur ;  and  we  most 
cordially  hope  that  Mr.  Halleck  will  speedily  amend 
the  fault  that  occasions  it.  But  whether  he  write  more 
or  not,  as  the  poet  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  quality, 
and  not  the  quantity  of  his  works,  he  is  entitled  to  a 
place  which  but  few  can  hope  to  attain." 

During  the  summer  of  1829  Mr.  Halleck's  genial 
and  accomplished  friend,  William  Coleman,  died  sud 
denly,  cut  off  by  an  apoplectic  stroke,  July  I3th. 
Theodore  D wight,  a  younger  brother  of  Dr.  D wight, 
and  a  lawyer  of  good  literary  attainments,  having 
declined  the  position  of  editor  of  the  Evening  Post, 
which  was  offered  to  him  by  Hamilton,  Wolcott,  and 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  335 

others,  it  was  conferred  upon  William  Coleman,  and 
the  first  number  issued  November  16,  1801.  Mr. 
Coleman  was  born  in  Massachusetts,  in  1766,  studied 
law,  and  settled  at  Greenfield  about  1794,  where  he 
also  edited  a  newspaper  and  erected  a  house  noted  for 
its  architectural  beauty.  In  the  second  year  of  the 
present  century  he  assumed  the  editorship  of  the  New- 
York  Evening  Post,  which  became  a  leading  Federal 
paper,  worthy  of  the  editorial  successorship  of  Robert 
C.  Sands,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  and  William  Leg- 
gett.  Mr.  Coleman  enjoyed  the  confidence  and  friend 
ship  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  Rufus  King,  John  Jay, 
and  other  political  and  literary  notabilities  of  that  day, 
and  for  ten  years  a  close  friendship  existed  between 
him  and  Mr.  Halleck.  Goodrich,  in  his  "  Recollec 
tions,"  describes  him  as  being  "a  large  man,  of  robust 
appearance,  with  a  vigorous  and  manly  countenance. 
His  nose  was  long  and  prominent,  and,  in  connection 
with  a  strongly-defined  brow,  gave  his  face  an  expression 
of  vigor  and  sagacity.  His  eye  was  gray,  his  hair  light 
brown,  and  at  the  time  I  speak  of  (1812)  was  slightly 
grizzled."  Buckingham,  in  his  "Reminiscences,"  re 
lates  that  Coleman  "was  remarkable  for  his  vigor  in 
skating,  having  passed  in  an  evening  from  near  Green 
field  to  Northampton,  a  distance  of  twenty  miles." 

After  a  most  pleasant  business  connection  of  eigh 
teen  years  with  Jacob  Barker,  acting  as  his  confidential 
clerk^  the  reverses  of  the  eminent  banker  and  merchant 


336  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

deprived  him  of  the  ability  of  longer  retaining  Halleck's 
services,  and  the  poet,  indulging  the  hope  that  Mr. 
Barker's  affairs  would  soon  assume  a  more  favorable 
attitude,  refused  the  employment  offered  by  others, 
and  devoted  himself  to  literary  pursuits.  Fortune  con 
tinuing  to  frown  on  the  affairs  of  his  old  friend,  a 
neighboring  merchant  offered  Mr.  Halleck  employ 
ment  at  fifteen  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  which  he 
mentioned  to  Mrs.  Barker,  when  she  inquired  if  he 
would  enter  the  service  of  another  for  the  miserable 
sum  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  The  reply  was,  "  No, 
madam,  it  is  the  miserable  want  of  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  that  may  tempt  me."  The  offer  was,  however, 
declined. 

My  venerable  friend,  Jacob  Barker,  of  New  Orleans, 
a  native  of  Swan  Island,  Kennebec,  then  the  Province 
and  now  the  State  of  Maine,  where  he  was  born  De 
cember  17,  1779,  writes  to  the  author:  "I  would 
gladly  contribute  to  the  praiseworthy  object  you  are 
pursuing  if  I  could  say  any  thing  which  would  add  to 
or  extend  the  fame  of  my  lamented  friend  Halleck. 
He  entered  my  service  at  the  age  of  about  twenty-one, 
and  continued  therein  until  he  reached  the  age  of  forty 
years,  when  the  reverses  in  my  business  deprived  me 
of  the  means  of  compensating  him.  He  was  my  con 
fidential  clerk,  an  excellent  book-keeper,  a  good  mathe 
matician,  with  an  amiable  and  quiet  disposition.  Sub 
sequently  he  devoted  himself  to  literature,  refusing  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  337 

employment  of  others,  in  the  hope  that  my  concerns 
would  assume  a  more  favorable  attitude.  *  *  *  I 
notice  with  great  pleasure  your  successful  exertions  to 
obtain  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  suitable  monument 
over  his  grave  at  Guilford." 

In  another  letter,  dated  April  12,  1868,  Mr.  Barker 
says:  "  The  embargo,  non-importation  laws,  blockade, 
and  .War  of  1812,  interrupted  business  to  such  an  ex 
tent,  that  I  could  not  afford  to  pay  accustomed  com 
pensation  to  my  employes,  when  Halleck  associated 
himself  with  a  relation  of  mine  in  the  ship-chandlery 
business,  but,  being  unsuccessful,  they  soon  abandoned 
that  pursuit,  and  Mr.  Halleck  returned  to  my  employ, 
without  ever  again  embarking  in  any  commercial  busi 
ness  on  his  own  account.  *  *  *  I  omitted  to  say 
that  Mr.  Halleck  so  far  left  my  service,  as  near  as  I 
recollect,  in  1822,  and  accepted  the  office  of  secretary 
of  the  Dutchess  Insurance  Company,  which  was  man 
aged  and  controlled  by  me,  he  assisting  me  at  the 
same  time  in  my  other  business  until  about  1828, 
when  the  business  of  the  company  was  closed.  *  *  * 
Mr.  Halleck  was  so  useful,  that  it  would  have  been 
difficult  for  me  to  have  done  without  him,  and  in  our 
long  connection  of  nearly  twenty  years  not  a  cool  word 
ever  passed  between  us." 

The  poet  writes  to  his  sister,  July  27,  1829:  "In 
yours  of  the  6th  you  ask  if  it  be  possible  for  you  to 
learn  Spanish,  so  far  as  to  translate  it,  in  three  months. 
15 


338  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

You,  no  doubt,  can  do  so,  if  you  work  very  hard.  But 
I  do  not  think,  to  be  candid,  that  your  translations  of 
any  '  Spanish  novel  or  romance '  would  sell  to  a  profit 
in  quite  three  months,  unless  it  be  some  one  at  present 
untranslated,  of  which  I  am  ignorant.  If  you  wish  to 
enjoy  what  has  been  called  one  of  the  world's  most 
delightful  pleasures,  namely,  that  of  reading  'Don 
Quixote '  in  the  original,  to  say  nothing  of  Calderon, 
one  of  the  greatest  men  of  any  age,  study  the  Spanish ; 
but,  if  you  study  it  solely  for  the  purpose  of  playing 
author,  take  a  brother-author's  word  for  it  that  the 
end  will  not  compensate  for  the  means." 

In  the  Evening  Post  of  November  16,  1830,  ap 
peared  an  "  Epistle  to  Robert  Hogbin,"  being  the  last 
"  Croaker"  written  by  the  surviving  partner  of  the 
poetical  firm  of  Croaker  &  Co.  Philip  J.  Forbes,  at 
at  that  time  librarian  of  the  New-York  Society  Library, 
remembers  meeting  Mr.  Halleck  at  the  office  of  the 
Post  on  that  day  and  conversing  with  him  on  various 
topics  while  they  were  waiting  for  the  afternoon  paper. 
When  Mr.  Forbes  reached  the  library  and  looked  over 
the  Post,  he  saw  the  "  Epistle  to  Robert  Hogbin, 
Esq.,"  and  felt  assured  in  his  own  mind,  from  words 
that  dropped  from  the  poet  during  their  interview, 
while  speaking  of  Hogbin,  that  Halleck  was  indeed,  as 
Cooper  called  him,  "  The  Admirable  Croaker."  Two 
days  later,  the  following  paragraph  appeared  in  the 
Evening  Post :  "  Several  inquiries  having  been  made 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  339 

of  us  respecting  the  name  of  the  author  of  an  '  Epistle 
to  Mr.  Hogbin,'  published  a  day  or  two  since  in  our 
paper,  he  took  measures  to  acquaint  him  with  the  fact, 
in  order  that,  if  there  was  no  objection  on  his  part,  we 
might  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  those  who  had  applied  to 
us.  This  morning  we  received  from  him  the  following 
note  in  reply :  '  The  author  of  the  "  Epistle  to  Mr. 
Hogbin  "  has,  unfortunately,  no  name.  His  father  and 
mother,  in  that  season  of  life  in  which  children  are 
generally  named,  took  advantage  of  his  youth  and  in 
experience,  and  declined  giving  him  any.  He  is,  there 
fore,  compelled  to  imitate  the  Minstrel  of  Yarrow,  in 
Leyden's  "  Scenes  of  Infancy,"  and  like  him 

'  Saves  others'  names,  but  leaves  his  own  unsung.'  " 


CHAPTER    VI. 
1831-1840. 

The  New-England  Magazine  on  Halleck. — Joseph  Snelling. — Miss  Sedg- 
wick. — Campbell  and  Pollok. — Poems  of  1831. — Edits  Byron's  Works. 
— Visits  Washington. — Enters  Astor's  office. — The  Cholera. — Fanny 
Kemble. — Anecdotes  of  the  Kembles. — Piero  Maroncelli. — Translation 
from  the  Italian.  —  Ellen  Campbell. — Her  Letters. — Publication  of 
Poems. — Description  of  Halleck. — Letter  from  Samuel  Rogers. — The 
Authors'  and  other  Clubs. — Louis  Napoleon. — William  Reynolds. — 
Fort  Lee. — Anecdotes. 

]N  the  New-England  Magazine  for  August, 
1831,  there  was  published  an  appreciative 
article  on  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  being  the  first  of  a 
series  of  literary  portraits  which  appeared  in  that  ex 
cellent  periodical,  conducted  by  the  brothers  Bucking 
ham,  and  issued  by  Munroe  &  Francis.  "  The  first 
thing,"  says  the  writer,  "  that  strikes  us  in  reading  his 
poems  is  the  singular  union  we  find  in  them  of  the 
humorous  and  pathetic.  He  seems  like  '  two  single ' 
poets  '  rolled  into  one ;  '  and  his  mind  presents  a  sin 
gularity  of  formation,  analogous  to  that  of  the  Siamese 
twins.  Read  his  serious  poems  alone,  such  as  'Mag 
dalen,'  or  those  beautiful  verses  beginning  'The  world 
is  bright  before  thee,'  which  ten  thousand  albums  can- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  34! 

not  make  hackneyed,  and  you  would  suppose  him  to 
be  a  man  steeped  in  romance,  whose  common  lan 
guage  was  sighs,  a  stranger  to  mirth  and  smiles,  and 
whose  mind  was  crowded  with  images  of  tenderness 
and  gloom.  You  would  picture  him  to  your  mind's 
eye  as  a  pale  and  melancholy  man,  in  suit  of  solemn 
black,  with  dark,  mysterious  eyes,  a  low  and  sweet 
voice,  a  woman's  gentleness,  and  a  child's  simplicity, 
much  given  to  serenading  and  repeating  poetry  by 
moonlight,  and  not  a  whit  to  songs  and  suppers.  You 
would  as  soon  think  of  a  Lord  Chancellor's  fiddling  a 
jig,  or  of  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  dancing  one, 
as  of  such  a  man's  cracking  a  joke,  or  even  laughing 
at  one  very  boisterously.  On  the  other  hand,  take 
him  in  another  point  of  view,  and  read  his  '  Sketch,'  or 
( Domestic  Happiness,'  and  you  would  think  the  mantle 
of  Prior  had  fallen  upon  him,  and  would  set  him  down 
for  one  of  the  merriest  souls  that  ever  chirped  over 
a  wine-cup,  and  '  doffed  the  world  aside  and  bade  it 
pass.'  You  would  never  suppose  he  knew  how  to  sigh, 
or  had  ever  talked  sentiment  this  side  of  the  third 
bottle.  Harlequin's  playing  Hamlet  would  not  be  so 
wild  an  incongruity  as  such  a  man's  being  '  melan 
choly  and  gentlemanlike.'  So  readily  does  he  slip 
from  grave  to  gay,  that  if  he  ever  begins  a  piece  in  a 
serious  and  penseroso  style,  you  may  be  pretty  sure 
that  he  will  fall  into  his  comic  vein  before  he  gets 
through.  *  *  * 


342  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  Who  can  read  his  verses  on  Burns,  or  his  '  Mag 
dalen,'  and  say  that  humor  is  his  distinguishing  char 
acteristic  ?  Who  can  be  insensible  to  the  feeling,  the 
sensibility,  the  tenderness,  and  the  imagination,  that 
breathe  from  every  line  and  hallow  every  word  of 
these  beautiful  poems  ?  The  heart  and  the  pulse  of  a 
true  poet  are  here — the  bright  dreams,  the  romantic 
hues,  the  thrilling  sense  of  the  beautiful  and  the  grand, 
'  imagination's  world  of  air,'  'the  vision  and  the  faculty 
divine.'  They  strike  you,  too,  as  the  productions  of  a 
man  with  whom  poetry  is  the  natural  expression  of 
thought,  and  who  writes  for  the  same  reason  that  a 
bird  sings  or  a  child  frolics. 

"  If  we  were  asked  what  is  the  peculiar  charm  of 
Mr.  Halleck's  poetry,  and  what  it  is  that  distinguishes 
him  from  the  other  poets  of  our  country,  we  should 
answer  in  one  word — Grace.  One  of  his  tuneful  breth 
ren  may  be  more  reflective,  another  more'  intense  and 
passionate,  and  another  may  translate  more  easily  the 
hieroglyphics  of  nature,  but  none  of  them  are  so 
graceful  as  he.  He  is  graceful  in  every  thing,  in  his 
thoughts,  in  the  appropriateness  of  his  imagery,  in  the 
grouping  of  his  words,  and  in  the  magic  harmony  of 
his  numbers,  which,  from  the  lips  of  a  fine  reader,  are 
as  good  as  music.  Every  one  must  have  observed  how 
much  effect  he  will  produce  by  a  single  epithet,  or  by 
the  peculiar  form  in  which  he  will  mould  a  thought, 
and  how  much  novelty  and  aptness  there  is  in  his 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  343 

illustrations.  To  enumerate  instances  would  be  almost 
to  copy  out  his  poems,  word  for  word.  This  uncom 
mon  gracefulness  of  expression,  which  gives  the  same 
kind  of  indescribable  charm  to  fine  thoughts  that  the 
cestus  of  Venus  is  feigned  to  have  done  to  a  beautiful 
face  and  figure,  is  partly  the  effect  of  nature  and  partly 
of  art.  He  is  evidently  a  careful  writer,  and  does  not 
belong  to  the  school  of  Lucilius,  who,  as  Horace  says, 
would  stand  upon  one  foot  and  dictate  two  hundred 
lines  in  an  hour.  Mr.  Halleck  knows  well  that  the 
most  enduring  works  are  those  which  are  the  slowest 
in  construction,  in  mental  architecture  at  least.  His 
poetry  reminds  us  of  an  antique  cameo,  in  which  we 
know  not  which  to  admire  most,  the  beauty  of  the 
material  or  the  exquisite  finish  of  the  workmanship. 
Without  knowing  any  thing  of  the  matter,  we  should 
say,  from  internal  evidence  merely,  that  he  was  a  slow 
writer  and  a  merciless  corrector,  and  that  he  blotted, 
to  say  the  least,  as  many  lines  as  he  left.  Nothing 
that  he  has  written  bears  the  marks  of  carelessness  or 
haste.  You  cannot  say  of  any  of  his  poems,  '  It  would 
have  been  better  for  his  fame  if  he  had  never  written 
this ; '  but  every  individual  line  has  been,  as  it  were,  a 
drop  to  swell  the  tide  that  bears  him  on  to  immor 
tality.  *  *  * 

"  Since  this  article  was  commenced,  we  have  read 
that  Mr.  Halleck  is  to  be  the  editor  of  a  magazine  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  We  wish  him  as  much  success 


344  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

as  he  deserves,  and  we  can  say  nothing  more  than 
that.  We  hope  he  may  receive  golden  opinions  from 
all  men,  and  exchange  his  own  notes  for  another  sort 
of  notes  which  have  a  very  magic  sound,  and  which, 
when  properly  arranged,  form  the  tune  of  '  Money  in 
both  pockets.'  We  are  sure  of  the  success  of  the 
work,  for  one  stanza  of  his  would  buoy  up  the  rest  of 
the  number,  were  it  unmingled  lead." 

There  was  no  foundation  for  the  rumor  referred  to 
in  the  last  paragraph.  Two  years  previous,  Dr.  DeKay 
proposed  to  the  poet  to  advance  the  necessary  capital 
to  establish  a  monthly  magazine  in  New  York,  which 
he  (Halleck)  should  edit,  and  the  subject  was  seriously 
considered  by  Mr.  Halleck,  who,  however,  finally  de 
cided  to  abandon  the  project,  as  being  too  hazardous, 
and  also  as  likely  to  interfere  with  his  desire  to  obtain 
a  position  similar  to  the  one  he  had  so  long  filled  with 
Jacob  Barker. 

The  following  letter  alludes  to  the  groundless  ru 
mors  of  the  poet's  intention  of  becoming  the  editor 
of  a  magazine,  which,  for  some  reason,  appears  to  have 
been  a  subject  of  great  annoyance  to  him  : 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Aug.  6,  1831. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  your  letter  of  the  3d. 
The  report  of  my  intention  of  editing  a  magazine  was 
contradicted,  by  the  bookseller  who  gave  rise  to  it,  in 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  345 

all  the  newspapers.  I  regret  that  the  contradiction 
should  not  have  met  your  eye.  The  whole  thing  was 
a  piece  of  impertinence  on  his  part.  He  said  to  me  in 
an  accidental  conversation  that  he  intended  some  day 
or  other  to  get  up  a  magazine.  I  made  some  general 
commonplace  remarks  expressive  of  my  wish  to  see 
such  a  work  established,  and  my  willingness  to  render 
it  all  the  aid  in  my  power.  On  this  slight  foundation, 
he  immediately  advertised,  printed  a  prospectus,  and 
obtained  subscribers,  without  my  knowledge  or  sus 
picion.  He  contradicted  it  a  few  days  after,  which  was 
all  the  atonement  he  could  make  me.  I  was,  as  you 
may  well  suppose,  exceedingly  annoyed  by  the  affair, 
particularly  at  this  moment,  when  I  do  not  wish  to  ap 
pear  before  the  public,  for  reasons  which  I  mentioned 
in  my  last.  *  .  *  * 

My  health,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  none  of  the  best. 
I  can  neither  eat,  drink,  nor  sleep,  with  any  pleasure. 
I  have  tried  a  jaunt  in  the  country,  but  it  would  not  do. 
Paziensa,  as  the  Italians  say. 

Yours  affectionately, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

During  the  year  1831,  Joseph  Snelling  pub 
lished  in  Boston  a  brochure  of  some  sixty  pages, 
entitled  " Truth,  a  New- Year's  Gift  for  Scribblers;  " 
in  which  most  of  the  poetical  writers  of  the  country 
were  excoriated.  The  following  lines  contain  mention 
of  Halleck  and  a  few  other  then  well-known  names  : 
15* 


2^6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  Dear  Halleck,  Nature's  favorite  and  mine, 
Cursed  be  the  hand  that  plucks  a  hair  of  thine : 
Accept  the  tribute  of  a  muse  inclined 
To  bow  to  nothing,  save  the  power  of  mind. 
Bard  of  Bozzaris,  shall  thy  native  shore 
List  to  thy  harp  and  mellow  voice  no  more  ? 
Shall  we,  with  skill  like  thine  so  nigh  at  hand, 
Import  our  music  from  a  foreign  land  ? 
While  Mirror  Morris  chants  in  whimpering  note 
-  And  croaking  Dana  strains  his  screech-owl  throat ; 
While  crazy  Neal  to  metre  shakes  his  chains, 
And  fools  are  found  to  listen  to  his  strains  ; 
While  childish  Natty  P.  the  public  diddles, 
And  Lunt  and  Rockwell  scrape  his  second  fiddles ; 
While  Brooks,  and  Sands,  and  Smith,  and  either  Clark, 
In  chase  of  Phoebus  howl  and  yelp  and  bark — 
Wilt  thou  be  silent  ?    Wake,  O  Halleck,  wake  ! 
Thine  and  thy  country's  honor  are  at  stake  ! 
Wake  and  redeem  the  pledge — thy  vantage  keep  ; 
'Tis  pity  one  like  thee  so  long  should  sleep  !  " 

It  is  to  the  author  of  the  above  lines  that  the  au 
thoress  of  "  Hope  Leslie  "  alludes  in  the  following  brief 
note  to  the  poet : 

[TO  FITZ-GREENE   HALLECK.] 

MY  DEAR  MR.  HALLECK  :  Do  you  happen  to  know 
either  good  or  evil  of  a  Mr.  Snelling,  author  of  a  poem 
called  "  The  Fair  Maid  of  Iowa  ?  " 

Yours  very  truly, 

C.  M.  SEDGWICK. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  347 

NINTH  STREET,  BELOW  AND  NEAR  UNIVERSITY  PLACE. 

zjth  April. — Not  the  first,  as  you  might  imagine 
from  my  inquiry ! 

In  the  month  of  November,  the  poet  wrote  the 
beautiful  theatrical  address  beginning 

Where  dwells  the  Drama's  spirit  ?  not  alone 
Beneath  the  palace-roof,  beside  the  throne — 

which  was  delivered  by  Mr.  Langton,  on  the  opening 
night,  November  14,  1831,  at  the  Richmond  Hill  Thea 
tre,  occupying  the  site  of  Richmond  Hill  House  and 
Gardens,  once  the  country-seat  of  Aaron  Burr,  the 
subject  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  in 
American  history. 

To  his  friend  Mrs.  Barnes,  who  applied  to  him  in 
the  following  spring  for  an  address  to  be  spoken  in  the 
same  theatre,  at  the  commencement  of  the  season  of 
1832,  which  reopened  May  23d,  under  the  management 
of  her  husband,  Mr.  Barnes,  a  comedian  of  much  ex 
cellence,  and  the  great  favorite  of  laughter-loving  au 
diences,  the  poet  sent  the  following  note,  for  which 
I  am  indebted  to  Joseph  N.  Ireland,  author  of  the 
"  Records  of  the  New- York  Stage  :  " 

Thursday,  May  io//z. 

Mr.  Halleck  presents  his  most  grateful  compliments 
to  Mrs.  Barnes,  and  assures  her  that  nothing  could 
give  him  greater  pleasure  than  the  power  of  complying 


348  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

with  the  request  with  which  she  has  honored  him  in 
her  note  of  yesterday,  but  he  deeply  regrets  to  be  com 
pelled  to  add  that  he  has  been  estranged  for  so  long  a 
time  from  the  habit  of  writing  and  rhyming,  as  to  find 
it  utterly  impossible  to  frame  an  Address  in  the  least 
degree  worthy  of  her  who  is  to  speak  it,  or  capable  of 
aiding  his  own  good  wishes  for  the  success  of  herself, 
and  of  his  excellent  friend  Mr.  Barnes.  He  therefore 
begs  her  to  accept  those  good  wishes  in  place  of  his 
bad  verses,  and  to  summon  to  her  nattering  task  some 
of  his  youngers  and  betters.  He  is  himself  becoming, 
like  King  Lear,  "a  foolish,  fond  old  man,  fourscore 
and  upward,"  and  is  broad  awake  with  both  eyes  from 
the  morning-dream  of  poetry. 

James  Lawson,  of  New  York,  in  a  note  to  the  au 
thor,  enclosing  the  subjoined  letter,  says:  "  Halleck's 
admiration  of  Campbell  was  unbounded.  Now  I  had  a 
right  to  toast  Pollok — he  was  in  the  Glasgow  college 
with  me,  though  I  do  not  remember  him  personally, 
and  when  I  first  read  his  '  Course  of  Time,'  it  greatly 
pleased  me — perhaps  the  impression  of  its  merit  has 
somewhat  faded  since." 

[TO  JAMES  LAWSON.] 

NEW  YORK,  December  ist. 

DEAR  SIR:  I  have  called  for  the  book  which  you 
were  so  good  as  to  make  me  a  present  of,  but  it  does 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  349 

not  appear  at  hand.     You  must,  therefore,  allow  me 
the  pleasure  of  calling  on  you  again. 

What  the  devil  did  you  mean  by  classing  Campbell 
and  one  Pollok  together  in  your  toast  at  the  St.  An 
drew's  dinner  ?  Your  wine  must  have  been  detestable. 
No  sensible  man  like  yourself  could  have  made  such  a 
remark  under  the  influence  of  champagne  or  Scottish 
whiskey.  Campbell  and  Pollok.  Hyperion  to  a  satyr  ! 
Pray  can  you  repeat  without  a  book  six  lines  of  the 
"  Course  of  Time  ?  "  If  so,  you  have  a  very  good  mem 
ory  badly  employed.  Can  you  not  repeat  without 
book  every  line  which  Tom  Campbell  has  published  ? 
If  not,  you  have  never  been  as  happy  a  man  as  you 
ought  to  have  been. 

Yours,  F.  G.  H. 

The  lines  addressed  to  "  A  Poet's  Daughter"  were 
written  in  December,  1831,  for  the  album  of  Miss  Har 
riet  Woodworth,  at  the  request  of  her  father,  the 
author  of  the  "  Old  Oaken  Bucket,"  and  for  many 
years  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Halleck's.  It  contains 
several  sweet  verses : 

"  A  poet's  daughter — dearer  word 
Lip  hath  not  spoke,  nor  listener  heard ; 
Fit  theme  for  song  of  bee  or  bird 

From  morn  till  even, 
And  wind-harp  by  the  breathing  stirred 

Of  starlit  heaven. 


250  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  My  spirit's  wings  are  weak — the  fire 
Poetic  comes  but  to  expire  ; 
Her  name  needs  not  my  humble  lyre 

To  bid  it  live  : 
She  hath  already  from  her  sire 

All  bard  can  give." 

"  The  Field  of  the  Grounded  Arms  "  is  a  loftier  strain, 
concerning  which  very  diverse  opinions  have  been 
expressed  by  critics,  one  of  whom,  a  writer  of  classical 
attainments,  refused  to  allow  any  merit  whatever  to 
the  poem,  and  quoted  with  great  energy  Horace's  ode  : 

"  Quis  multa  gracilis  te  puer  in  rosa, 
Perfusus  liquidis  urget  odoribus 

Grata  Pyrrha  sub  antro  ? 

Cui  flavam  religas  comam 
Simplex  munditiis ! —  " 

Mr.  Halleck's  friend,  Charles  P.  Clinch,  in  a  letter 
to  the  author,  written  at  the  time  of  the  first  appear 
ance  of  this  poenij  in  which  a  modern  has  touched  the 
Latin  harp  with  great  success,  remarks :  "  Being  ad 
dressing  you,  as  the  English  writers  would  say,  allow 
me  to  take  the  opportunity  (which  I  should  otherwise 
never  take,  perhaps)  of  congratulating  you  upon  your 
having  produced  the  finest  poem  of  the  age,  'The 
Field  of  the  Grounded  Arms.'  It  is  the  most  finished 
poetry  that  I  know  of  in  the  English  language,  and, 
knowing  nothing  of  any  other  language  but  the  Eng- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLE CK.  2$  I 

lish,  it  is  to  me  the  most  finished  poetry  in  the  world. 
If  ever  I  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  upon  the  poetical 
art,  '  The  Field  of  the  Grounded  Arms '  shall  be  my 
text-book.  There  is  not  a  line  of  it  but  what  is  an 
illustration  of  the  spirit  of  poesy.  Your  first  stanza 
contains  the  most  beautiful  description  of  thought  that 
ever  was  conceived,  and  the  entire  piece  is,  in  my 
estimation,  perfect.  What  the  devil  did  Bryant  mean 
by  leaving  out  the  last  stanza  ?  I  have  just  met  with 
the  whole  in  the  Legendary.  Did  he  mean  to  say  that 
it  was  not  in  keeping  with  the  rest  ?  or  that  the  piece 
was  complete  without  it  ?  He  is  as  bad  as  Leggett, 
who  objected  to  its  want  of  rhyme  !  The  remembrance 
of  the  homely  proverb,  that  '  nothing  is  little  or  great 
but  by  comparison,'  would  have  convinced  Bryant  of 
the  '  fitness '  of  the  last  stanza.  Of  its  poetical  beauty 

he  cannot  have  doubted,  nor .     But,  pardon  me, 

this  is  a  rhapsody.  My  excuse  is,  that  '  The  Field  of 
the  Grounded  Arms'  lies  before  me." 

The  closing  stanza  referred  to  by  Mr.  Clinch,  and 
for  some  unknown  reason  omitted  by  Mr.  Halleck  in 
the  later  editions  of  his  poems,  is  as  follows  : 

"  Feelings  as  proud  as  were  the  Greek's  of  old, 
When  in  his  country's  hour  of  fame  lie  stood, 
Happy  and  bold  and  free, 
Gazing  on  Marathon." 

During  the  month  of  January,  1832,  the  poet  com- 


352  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

pleted  for  a  New-York  publisher  an  octavo  edition  of 
Byron,  containing  nearly  seven  hundred  pages.  The 
title  is  "  The  Works  of  Lord  Byron,  in  Verse  and 
Prose,  including  his  Letters  and  Journals,  with  a 
Sketch  of  his  Life,"  and  the  advertisement  of  the  pub 
lisher,  George  Dearborn,  as  follows:  "The  works  of 
Lord  Byron,  to  be  found  in  this  edition,  comprising 
the  whole  of  his  poems,  letters,  journals,  etc.,  have 
''been  collected  and  arranged,  and  a  memoir  added,  by 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  Esq.  The  poetical  works  of 
Lord  Byron  have  been  published  in  a  variety  of  forms, 
but  at  no  time,  or  in  any  country,  has  a  uniform  edi 
tion  of  his  prose  and  poetical  works  been  attempted 
before  the  present.  The  edition  now  publishing  in 
London,  by  Murray,  contains  so  much  of  Byron's  prose 
writings  as  is  included  in  the  Life  by  Moore.  In  the 
American  edition  there  is  a  great  number  of  the  letters 
of  Byron  not  in  the  English  copy,  including  his  letters 
to  his  mother.  There  is  also  in  this  edition  a  large 
collection  of  poems  not  in  any  previous  American  one ; 
many  blanks  are  filled  up,  and  explanatory  notes  added, 
which  will  be  found  of  essential  service  to  the  reader. 
The  present,  therefore,  is  emphatically  the  first  com 
plete  edition  of  the  poetical  and  prose  works  of  Lord 
Byron.  The  head  of  Byron,  engraved  for  this  edition, 
is  from  a  painting  by  an  American  artist,  and  was 
considered  by  Byron  and  his  friends  as  the  best  ever 
taken."  Halleck's  editorial  labors  are  executed  with 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  253 

skill  and  fidelity,  and,  as  stated  by  the  publisher,  his 
edition  was  the  first  complete  collection  of  the  poet's 
prose  and  verse. 

Halleck  made  a  visit  to  Washington  during  the 
month  of  February,  1832,  in  company  with  a  party  of 
friends,  remaining  at  the  capital  for  several  weeks.  As 
the  then  favorite  poet  of  America,  he  was  the  recipient 
of  flattering  attentions  from  President  Jackson — with 
whom  he  dined  twice — several  members  of  the  Cabinet, 
and  Mr.  Vaughan,  the  British  minister,  who  gave  a 
grand  dinner  in  his  honor.  During  this  visit  the  poet 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun, 
and  many  other  prominent  statesmen  of  that  day. 

On  the  I5th  day  of  May,  1832,  Mr.  Halleck  entered 
the  counting-house  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  at  that  time 
the  wealthiest  merchant  in  the  United  States.  The 
poet,  in  a  letter  to  his  sister,  dated  May  29th,  briefly 
announces  the  fact  in  these  words  :  "A  few  days  pre 
vious  to  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  2ist,  I  accepted 
a  proposition  made  me  by  John  Jacob  Astor,  to  take 
a  charge  in  his  business  here.  He  himself  goes  to 
Europe  in  two  or  three  weeks.  This  will  probably,  if 
I  wish  it,  be  a  permanent  arrangement,  and,  possibly, 
a  profitable  one."  If  the  latter  hope  was  not  fulfilled, 
the  former  certainly  was,  as  Mr.  Halleck  remained  with 
the  wealthy  merchant  until  his  death.  He  not  only 
enjoyed  Mr.  Astor's  entire  confidence  in  their  business 
relations,  extending  through  a  period  of  sixteen  years, 


354  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

but  the  poet  and  merchant  were  on  the  most  friendly 
terms.  Mr.  Halleck,  both  in  the  millionnaire's  town- 
house  and  at  his  country  residence  at  Astoria,  was, 
with  Washington  Irving,  a  frequent  guest,  and  it  is 
a  curious  illustration  of  the  general  thought  that  it 
was  recognized  that  Mr.  Astor  was  honored  by  the 
friendship  of  Halleck  and  Irving,  whose  wealth  of  intel 
lect  inspired  more  respect  from  the  distinguished 
people  who  gathered  around  the  rich  merchant's  table 
than  did  all  his  vast  accumulations.  Washington 
Irving,  in  a  letter  dated  September  15,  1833,  says: 
"  Halleck,  the  poet,  resides  a  good  deal  with  him 
(Astor)  at  present,  having  a  handsome  salary  for  con 
ducting  his  affairs ;  "  and  in  another  letter  alludes  to 
Halleck  as  "a  very  pleasant  companion."  Again, 
under  date  of  September  26,  1835,  Irving  writes : 
' '  For  upward  of  a  month  past  I  have  been  quartered 
at  Hell-gate,  with  Mr.  Astor,  and  I  have  not  had  so 
quiet  and  delightful  a  nest  since  I  have  been  in  Amer 
ica.  He  has  a  spacious  and  well-built  house,  with  a 
lawn  in  front  of  it,  and  a  garden  in  the  rear.  The 
lawn  sweeps  down  to  the  water's  edge,  and  full  in  front 
of  the  house  is  the  little  strait  of  Hell-gate,  which  forms 
a  constantly  moving  picture.  Here  the  old  gentleman 
keeps  a  kind  of  bachelor's  hall.  Halleck,  the  poet, 
lives  with  him,  but  goes  to  town  every  morning,  and 
comes  out  to  dinner.  The  only  other  member  of  his 
family  is  one  of  his  grandchildren,  a  very  fine  boy  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  355 

fourteen  years  of  age.1  Pierre  Munro  Irving  has  been 
a  guest  for  several  weeks  past,  but  has  recently  re 
turned  to  New  York.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  sweet 
and  delightful  I  have  found  this  retreat :  pure  air, 
agreeable  scenery,  a  spacious  house,  profound  quiet, 
and  perfect  command  of  my  time  and  self." 

The  following  letters  to  Miss  Halleck  describe  the 
fearful  ravages  made  in  New- York  City  and  elsewhere 
by  that  dreadful  scourge,  the  cholera,  during  the  sum 
mer  of  1832  : 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Jitly  9,  1832. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  this  moment  received 
your  letter  of  the  6th.  You  should  not  be  alarmed 
about  the  cholera.  There  is  not  the  slightest  cause  for 
alarm.  All  the  cases  reported  with  so  much  ostenta 
tion  are  cither  cases  of  the  common  chplera  of  the 
season,  or  of  other  ordinary  diseases.  Fear  and  the 
physicians  have  killed  many,  and  magnified  the  whole 
affair.  That  death  is  within  and  without  and  around 
us  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  is  a  truth  known  alike 
to  the  wisest  and  the  weakest.  We  must  be  prepared 
to  meet  it  hourly  and  momently,  whether  in  town  or 
country,  in  sickness  or  in  health.  But,  that  there  is 
any  thing  particularly  pestilential  in  the  air  of  New 
York  at  this  time  more  than  at  other  times,  I  do  not 
believe,  nor  is  there  the  least  reason  to  believe  so.  The 

1  Charles  Astor  Bristed. 


356  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

number  of  deaths,  on  the  contrary,  is  not  equal  to  that 
of  the  same  period  the  last  year.  The  Board  of  Health 
-is  composed  of  aldermen  who  are  proverbially  block 
heads,  and  doctors  who  are  fast  winning  the  same  repu 
tation.  DeKay  and  Rhinelander  are  both  the  best  fel 
lows  in  the  world,  but  they  began  to  be  frightened 
before  they  reached  Canada,  and  have  not  yet  been  re 
stored  to  their  senses.  For  my  own  part  I  do  not  be 
lieve  the  cholera  to  have  existed  either  at  Montreal  or 
Quebec.  Out  of  some  two  or  three  thousand  of  His 
Majesty's  troops  stationed  at  those  places,  though  ex 
posed,  from  the  nature  of  their  duties,  to  all  weathers 
and  all  fatigues  under  the  sun  and  the  stars,  only  three 
or  four  died,  and  they  probably  of  the  usual  diseases. 
If  there  was  pestilence  in  the  air,  as  is  said  by  the 
affrighted,  how  could  all  these  escape  ? 

It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  see  you  in  Guil- 
ford,  and  were  I  at  leisure  I  would  visit  you,  but  not 
from  apprehensions  of  any  malignant  disease  prevail 
ing  here.  My  business,  however,  now  confines  me  to 
the  city,  and  it  is,  therefore,  very  uncertain  when  we 
shall  again  meet.  *  *  * 

[TO   THE   SAME.] 

NEW  YORK,  Sept.  13,  1832. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  hasten  to  answer  your  ques 
tions.  Mrs.  Bristed  was  the  daughter  of  John  Jacob 
Astor.  Mrs.  J.  B.  Lawrence  was  not  the  mother  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


357 


Mrs.  Hillhouse,  and  not,  I  believe,  a  relative.  I  met 
Miss  Warren  at  Washington,  and  I  have  also  met  her 
here  and  at  Saratoga.  She  is  very  amiable  and  lady 
like.  If  you  make  her  acquaintance,  please  present  my 
compliments.  I  have  not  yet  had  the  cholera ;  on  the 
contrary,  my  health  has  been  through  the  summer 
somewhat  better  than  usual.  I  have  taken  no  precau 
tions  against  any  new  disease,  believing  in  a  special 
Providence,  and  have  not  deviated  from  my  general 
habits  of  life.  Those  habits  are,  however,  and  have- 
ever  been,  temperate  and  regular,  but  this  is  a  consti 
tutional  virtue,  and  deserves  no  applause,  for  it  asks  no 
sacrifice.  The  ravages  from  the  cholera  still  continue, 
though  to  a  limited  extent.  Had  proper  precautions 
been  taken  by  the  city  authorities,  the  mortality  would 
have  been  comparatively  not  much  more  than  is  usual 
at  this  season.  The  fact  that,  of  882  burials  in  one  of 
the  July  weeks,  638  were  in  the  Potter's  field  and  138 
in  the  grounds  of  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  leaving  only 
46  deaths  among  persons  able  to  purchase  a  grave, 
proves  that  the  poor  and  the  stranger  had  not  fair  play. 
The  poor  in  the  almshouse,  amounting  to  about  1,200, 
were  all  discharged  and  turned  destitute  into  the  streets 
on  the  approach  of  rumors  of-  the  cholera,  under  the 
pretence  of  danger  from  contagion,  crowded  rooms,  etc. 
They  all  died,  to  a  pauper.  Fear  also  had  its  victims, 
and  the  ignorant  physicians  did  the  rest.  The  cholera 
has  now  ceased  to  be  a  subject  of  conversation  here, 


358  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

but  Death  has  more  darts  than  one  in  his  quiver,  and 
men  will  die  "from  time  to  time."  I  am  somewhat 
surprised  that  this  truth  cannot  be  thought  of  except  in 
seasons  of  epidemic  alarm.  I  will  endeavor  to  pack  up 
the  prints  you  ask  for  soon  and  forward  them. 
Yours  affectionately, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

The  sprightly  lines  addressed  "  To  Her  who  can 
understand  them,"  his  only  poetical  composition  of  the 
year  1832,  were  written  for  Mrs.  E.  F.  Ellet,  then  Miss 
Lummis,  who,  while  on  a  visit  to  New  York,  expressed 
a  desire  to  obtain  the  poet's  autograph ;  and  at  the 
suggestion  of  a  friend  sent  Mr.  Halleck  a  complimenta 
ry  note,  to  which  he  immediately  replied.  Afterward 
Prof.  Ellet  (to  whom  Miss  Lummis  was  married  years 
after)  wrote  a  poem  addressed  to  Mr.  Halleck,  apos 
trophizing  his  greatness  as  a  "  violet- flower  "  address 
ing  the  sun,  and  sent  it  as  from  Miss  L.  Mr.  Hal 
leck  alluded  to  this  in  one  of  his  poems,  and  to  the 
young  lady's  age,  as  follows  : 

"  'Tis  youth — 'tis  beauty  asks  ;  the  green 
•     And  growing  leaves  of  seventeen 

Are  round  her ;  and,  half  hid,  half  seen, 

A  violet-flower ; 

Nursed  by  the  virtues  she  hath  been 
From  childhood's  hour." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  359 

One  of  the  lost  notes  of  Mr.  Halleck,  speaking  of  Miss 
Lummis's  age,  which  she  had  told  him,  said :  "  Seven 
teen  !  The  very  word  is  an  invocation  more  delight 
ful  than  Tasso's,  which  has  hitherto  been  deemed  the 
most  delightful  of  all  invocations." 

Miss  Lummis,  of  course,  concealed  her  name  in 
all  this  ;  and  Mr.  Halleck  never  knew  who  had  written 
or  sent  him  the  poem  referred  to.  His  own  poem,  en 
titled  "  Lines  to  Her  who  can  understand  them,"  be 
ginning — 

"  The  song  that  o'er  me  hovered 
In  summer's  hour,  in  summer's  hour," 

is  addressed  to  the  unknown  lady  and  correspondent. 
The  allusions  throughout  show  it  to  be  so. 

In  the  following  letter  occurs  the  first  mention  I 
have  met  with  in  Mr.  Halleck's  correspondence  of  Mrs. 
Frances  Anne  Kemble,  of  whom  he  was  then  and  al 
ways  afterward  a  great  admirer  : 

[TO    MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  May  6,  1833. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER:  I  have  received  your  two  last 
letters,  and  will  endeavor,  at  some  leisure  moment,  to 
answer  the  questions  they  ask  me,  particularly.  I  should 
be  happy  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Scoville,  but 
am  so  much  engaged  in  my  "  bread-winning"  employ 
ments  in  the  counting-house,  that  I  can  find  no  time  to 


360  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

devote  to  visits.  With  the  exception  of  the  party  you 
mention,  given  to  Fanny  Kemble,  and  one  other  party, 
both  of  which  were  so  pressed  upon  me  that  it  was  less 
painful  to  say  "  yes  "  than  "  no,"  I  have  not  mingled 
with  the  "  gay  world"  for  more  than  two  years  in  a 
single  instance.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  be  more  social 
some  day  or  other,  though  I  know  not  on  what  the 
hope  is  founded.  But,  as  Corporal  Nym  says,  "  Things 
must  be  as  they  may." 

I  have  put  on  board  the  steamboat  for  New  Haven, 
to  sail  to-morrow,  a  package  for  you,  addressed  to  the 
care  of  Mr.  Elliot,  containing  the  lithographic  prints 
of  my  "  face  divine,"  about  which  I  formerly  wrote 
you.  You  will  know  them,  because  my  name  is  on 
each.  If  they  resemble  the  personage  intended,  Nature 
might  have  made,  if  she  had  pleased,  a  handsomer 
man.  *  *  * 

Yours  affectionately, 

F,  G.  HALLECK. 

During  the  year  1833  Mr.  Halleck  wrote  for  the 
second  volume  of  the  "National  Portrait  Gallery" 
a  memoir  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  being  chiefly  influenced 
to  do  so  by  reason  of  its  being  the  particular  wish  of 
the  illustrious  statesman's  family  that  he  should  pre 
pare  it.  If  Mr.  Halleck  wrote  any  poetry  during  this 
year,  I  have  been  unable  to  designate  or  discover  the 
compositions. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  361 

The  following  verses  were  translated  by  the  poet  in 
January,  1834,  from  the  Italian  of  Piero  Maroncelli, 
the  companion  of  Silvio  Pellico  in  his  memorable 
imprisonment  in  the  Austrian  prison  at  Spielberg,  and 
the  friend  of  his  countryman,  Lorenzo  Daponte.  The 
poem,  which  has  been  so  happily  rendered  by  Mr. 
Halleck,  is  introduced  by  the  author  in  his  "Additions 
to  'My  Prison  Memoirs  of  Silvio  Pellico,'"  with  the 
following  lines  and  letter  :  "  The  surgeons  were  in  the 
adjoining  room  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  making 
preparations  for  the  operation.  After  the  hopes  which 
I  had  been  allowed  to  indulge,  in  April  and  May,  of 
recovering  the  use  of  my  limb,  the  spring  had  quite 
passed  away,  and  this  was  the  end  of  all !  Filled  with 
this  thought,  and,  on  the  one  hand,  little  expecting  a 
favorable  result,  and,  on  the  other,  regarding  even  the 
worst  without  much  apprehension,  I  sang  as  follows. 
These  verses  being  intended  for  my  mother,  and  other 
dear  friends,  when  I  should  be  no  more,  it  was  proper 
that  they  should  wear  the  semblance  of  composure, 
that  they  might  be  the  less  unworthy  of  the  noble 
objects  for  whom  they  were  designed." 

Piero  Maroncelli's  letter,  in  which  his  verses  were 
enclosed  to  A.  De  Latour,  the  translator  of  the  "Brigi- 
oni "  of  Pellico,  is  subjoined,  as  it  explains  his  object 
and  design  in  composing  them  :  "I  send  you  the  poor 
verses  which  I  sung  extemporaneously  in  the  interval 

while  they  were  preparing  the  instruments  to  amputate 
16 


362  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

my  leg ;  how  long  that  interval  appeared  to  me  !  Pel- 
lico  alludes  to  them  in  his  '  Memoirs,'  which  you  are 
translating  with  so  much  grace  and  beauty.  When  I 
composed  them  they  were  designed  for  my  mother,  as 
a  legacy,  which  I  confided  to  the  memory  of  my  friend, 
that  they  might  be  religiously  transmitted,  word  for 
word,  to  those  who  were  dear  to  me.  If  this  bequest 
had  been  in  prose,  those  dear  friends  might  have 
doubted  its  authenticity ;  but  such  a  doubt  could  not 
arise  with  regard  to  words  connected  by  rhyme.  This 
influenced  me ;  and  not  the  desire  of  writing  verses. 
The  consequences  of  the  amputation  were  not  fatal. 
Two  years  after  I  regained  my  liberty ;  but  my  mother 
has  not  yet  been  able  to  embrace  her  son,  nor  to  read 
the  words  I  dictated  for  her.  My  life  is  indeed  a  tissue 
of  misfortunes." 

Winds  of  the  wakened  spring  ! 

O'er  my  loved  land,  my  Italy,  again 
Ye  speed  with  happy  wing, 

But  visit  not  my  prison-couch  of  pain. 

For  April's  dewy  air, 

For  smiling  May  I  prayed,  but  prayed  in  vain ; 
They  came — but  could  not  bear 

Their  blessing  to  my  prison-couch  of  pain. 

These  cold  Moravian  skies, 

That  wither  spring's  first  buds  on  hill  and  plain, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  363 

Fright  from  my  suffering  eyes 
Her  power  to  soothe  my  prison-couch  of  pain. 

How  many  pangs  have  passed  ! 

How  many  more  must  rack  me,  limb  and  brain, 
Ere  the  day  dawns,  at  last, 

That  frees  me  from  my  prison-couch  of  pain  ! 

Blest  day  !  when  on  the  arm 

Of  mother,  sister,  brother,  deep  I  drain 

The  cup  of  Love,  whose  charm 

Will  heal  my  prison- wounds  of  grief  and  pain  ! 

Alas  !  these  dreams  of  sleep 

Break  but  to  rivet  my  unbroken  chain, 

And  Hope  but  comes  to  weep 

Beside  me  at  my  prison-couch  of  pain  ! 

Maroncelli  acknowledged  in  the  following  poetic 
letter  his  gratitude  to  Mr.  Halleck,  "  the  first  English 
poet  of  America,"  for  so  far  improving  his  "  artless 
breathings  of  an  early  inspiration,"  that  they  should 
by  every  intelligent  person  be  called  original : 

[TO   FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  25  Gennaro,  1834. 

SIGNORE  :  Un  gentile  pensiero  di  Miss  Johnson,  nel 
primo  dell'  anno,  a  proccacciato  a  me  1'onore  d'essere 
tradotto  dal  primo  poeta  inglese  dell'  America, — ed  all' 
America  la  gloria  di  vedere  accresciata  la  patria  let- 
teratura  d'un  componimento  die  ogni  intelligente  chia- 


364  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

mera  originate.  Gusto  e  spontaneita  fluiscono,  in  questa 
vostra  odicina,  con  parole  e  pensieri.  Consentite,  Sig- 
nor  Halleck,  ch'  io  dico  di  non  riconoscere  in  si  gentili 
versi  le  mie  primaveriti  aurette.  Certo,  quel  dolore  e 
fedele,  quelF  accento  e  vero ;  ravviso  in  esso  il  dolor 
mio  e  la  parola  del  core ;  ma  la  grazia  onde  questa  e 
quello  sono  abbelliti  e  tutta  vostra. 

Perche  si  felice  esperimento  non  e  caduto  sopra 
qualche  mio  poemetto  meno  in-significante  e  meno  in- 
degno  di  voi,  come  forse  o  alcuno  de'  miei  Psalmi,  o 
una  Spielbergica,  o  una  Tradizione  itala,  o  una  delle 
quindici  Rose,  e  forse  tra  queste  il  Natale  ? 

Permettete  ch'  io  vi  stringa  la  mano  con  rispetto, 
riconoscenza  e  cordiale  affezione  ? 

PIERO  MARONCELLI. 

[TRANSLATION.] 

NEW  YORK,  z^th  January,  1834. 

SIR  :  A  beautiful  little  notice  received  from  Miss  Johnson  apprises  me  of 
having  had  the  honor  of  being  translated  by  the  first  English  poet  of  Amer 
ica.  To  America  be  all  the  glory  of  seeing  her  literature  enriched  with  a 
composition  which  every  intelligent  man  will  call  original.  Each  word, 
each  thought,  of  your  elegant  little  ode  bespeaks  taste  arid  ease.  Will 
you  allow  me  to  say,  Mr.  Halleck,  that  in  your  beautiful  verses  I  would  not 
recognize  the  artless  breathings  of  my  early  inspirations  ?  True,  that 
sorrow  is  faithfully  portrayed,  that  accent  is  truthful.  I  plainly  perceive 
my  grief,  and  the  voice  of  the  heart  re-echoed  through  the  ode ;  but  then  the 
graceful  garb  in  which  both  are  clothed  is  all  yours. 

Alas !  that  so  happy  an  experiment  should  not  have  fallen  on  some  other 
one  of  my  poems,  less  insignificant  and  less  unworthy  of  you,  such  as  one 
of  my  Psalms,  or  a  Spielbergica,  or  an  "Italic  Tradition,"  or  one  of  the 
fifteen  "Roses,"  and,  among  these  last,  perhaps  "  il  Natale." 

Allow  me  to  press  your  hand  with  respect,  gratitude,  and  cordial  affec 
tion.  PIERO  MARONCELLI. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  365 

Frances  Anne  Kemble  made  her  first  appearance  at 
Covent  Garden  Theatre,  London,  October  25,  1829: 
her  venerable  but  still  stately-looking  aunt,  Mrs.  Sid- 
dons,  and  John  Philip  Kemble,  being  present  at  the 
greatest  success  ever  achieved  by  a  debutante.  The 
play  was  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  with  her  father,  Charles 
Kemble,  as  Mercutio ;  his  beautiful  and  gifted  wife  as 
Lady  Capulet;  and  the  slight,  graceful,  and  girlish 
Fanny,  of  sweet  seventeen,  as  Juliet. 

Halleck  particularly  admired  her  Portia,  and  also 
spoke  on  one  occasion  in  terms  of  the  highest  com 
mendation  of  her  Bianca,  in  "Fazio,"  Julia,  in  the 
"Hunchback,"  and  Louise  de  Savoy,  in  her  own  play 
of  "  Francis  the  First,"  written  before  she  was  eigh 
teen.  She  appeared  with  her  father  at  the  Park 
Theatre,  New  York,  September  18,  1832,  as  Bianca, 
and,  after  a  lapse  of  thirty  years,  the  poet  could  not 
speak  without  enthusiasm  of  that  evening,  or  of  the 
following  night,  when  he  saw  her  play  Juliet  to  Charles 
Kemble's  Romeo.  Halleck's  description  was  most 
vividly  recalled  to  the  writer,  in  November,  1868,  by 
his  witnessing  the  debut,  in  the  character  of  another  of 
Shakespeare's  heroines,  of  Mrs.  Kemble's  kinswoman, 
a  lovely  and  equally  gifted  young  lady,  who  does  no 
discredit  to  the  illustrious  name  of  Siddons.  Halleck 
became  intimate  with  Fanny  Kemble,  and  their  ac 
quaintance  and  friendship  continued  after  her  marriage 
with,  and  her  separation  from,  Pierce  Butler. 


2 66  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Describing  to  me  his  first  dinner  with  Fanny  Kem- 
ble,  Halleck  gave  a  most  ludicrous  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  she  amused  herself  with  a  cat  upon 
retiring  with  the  other  ladies  present  from  the  dining- 
hall  to  the  drawing-room,  and  not  a  word  could  be 
extracted  from  her  till  the  gentlemen,  having  finished 
their  wine  and  cigars,  made  their  appearance.  Among 
the  poet's  stories  of  "  Fanny,"  as  he  invariably 
called  her,  was  one  of  a  curious  character,  arising 
entirely  from  a  typographical  error  of  a  single  letter. 
A  distinguished  litterateur  of  New  York,  and  a  very 
particular  friend  and  admirer  of  the  gifted  lady,  in  a 
notice  which  he  wrote  of  one  of  her  performances  for 
an  evening  paper,  stated  that  she  had  "  a  dark,  flashing 
eye,  when  roused  in  any  degree,  that  streams  with  fiery 
rays,  and,  diamond-like,  lights  up  the  tints  that  show 
themselves  through  a  brunette  shin."  If  the  careless 
compositor  had  substituted  "skin"  for  the  italicised 
word  of  the  quotation,  it  would,  of  course,  have  been 
what  the  unlucky  and  exasperated  poet  wrote. 

Another  Kemble  anecdote,  which  Halleck  related 
to  me  with  great  gusto,  was  as  follows,  the  dramatis 
personce  being  John  Philip  and  Charles  Kemble,  and 
a  son  of  the  Emerald  Isle  ;  scene,  Drury  Lane  Theatre, 
London.  The  gifted  brothers  sat  one  night  in  the  pit, 
listening  to  a  play  written  by  the  "  divine  Williams. " 
In  the  course  of  the  evening  Charles  Kemble  said  to 
liis  brother,  "  I  really  think  this  is  the  best  play  for 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  367 

representation  that  Shakespeare  ever  wrote."  No 
sooner  had  he  made  this  remark,  than  a  huge,  red 
headed,  broad-shouldered,  bull-necked,  ferocious-look 
ing  Irishman,  who  sat  immediately  behind  him,  leaned 
forward,  and  tapped  him  on  the  shoulder,  to  secure  his 
attention.  "  I  think,  sir,"  he  observed,  with  a  strong 
brogue,  "  ye  said  it  was  one  Shakespeare  what  wraught 
that  play.  It  was  not  Shakespeare,  sir,  but  my  friend 
Linnard  McNally  what  wraught  that  play."  "  Oh, 
sir,"  replied  Charles  Kemble,  coolly,  "very  well."  A 
short  time  after  this  the  Irishman  tapped  him  on  the 
shoulder  again.  "  Do  you  belave,  sir,  that  it  was  my 
friend  Linnard  McNally  what  wraught  that  play  ? " 
"  Oh,  yes,  certainly,  sir,  if  you  say  so,"  was  the  peace 
able  answer.  For  a  while  the  brothers  remained  un 
molested  ;  but  at  length  Charles  felt  the  heavy  hand 
once  more  upon  him.  "Your  friend,  what  sits  on 
your  left  side,"  exclaimed  the  Irishman,  "  don't  look 
as  if  he  believed  it  was  my  friend  Linnard  McNally 
what  wraught  that  play."  This  was  too  much  for  the 
Kembles ;  they  rose  and  left  the  theatre  together,  not 
deeming  it  either  pleasant  or  perfectly  safe  to  remain 
in  such  belligerent  society.  Who  the  man  was  they 
never  knew ;  but  the  friend  whom  he  was  so  determined 
to  pass  off  as  the  greatest  dramatic  genius  of  every 
age  was  an  obscure  writer  of  plays  and  songs,  who  is 
entitled  to  remembrance  only  as  the  author  of  "  The 
Lass  of  Richmond  Hill." 


2 68  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

The  following  very  interesting  letter  from  the  poet 
to  his  sister  contains  allusions  to  himself  and  to  Miss 
Kemble,  or,  as  she  had  then  become,  Mrs.  Pierce 
Butler : 

[TO  MISS  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  June  22,  1835. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  Previous  to  the  receipt  of  your 
letter  of  the  I5th,  I  had  written  you  a  letter,  addressed 
to  the  care  of  Mr.  Elliot,  at  New  Haven,  which  you 
probably  have  not  yet  received.  As  it  enclosed  a 
bank-note,  I  am  anxious  to  learn  that  it  reached  you. 
So  you  wonder  what  Fanny  Kemble  could  find  to  ad 
mire  in  me  after  a  personal  acquaintance,  and  chari 
tably  attribute  her  praises  of  me  to  her  fears  of  my 
reputation  as  a  satirist.  Thank  you.  Still  I  cannot  but 
do  her  the  justice  to  say  that  you  are  the  first  person 
that  ever  accused  her  of  fearing  any  thing.  As  for  her 
age,  about  which  you  ask,  she  is  probably  not  far  from 
twenty.  She  has  remarkably  fine  eyes,  and  is,  when  and 
where  she  chooses  to  be,  very  agreeable.  The  news 
papers,  whose  editors  she  dislikes,  abuse  her  and  hers 
without  mercy.  About  them  she  cares  little.  Her  lot 
in  life  is  a  happy  one.  She  has  youth,  health,  heart, 
and  intellect,  a  good  husband,  a  pretty  baby,  and  twenty 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  I  wish  all  my  lady-acquaint 
ances  were  as  fortunate.  By  the  way,  she  alludes  to 
me  in  asterisks  in  the  body  of  her  book.  The  allusion 
would  doubtless  escape  your  notice.  She  says  of  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  369 

dinner-party  at  which  we  first  met,  "  It  was  very  pleas 
ant,  very."  As  she  was  seated  between  Mr.  Berkeley 
(a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Berkeley)  and  myself,  and  con 
versed  with  us  exclusively,  I  take  half  the  compliment. 
After  describing  my  visage,  and  saying  something  about 
"  radiancy  of  eye  and  forehead,"  she  closes  thus : 
"  The  expression  of  his  features  is  strongly  sarcastic. 
I  liked  him  very  much,  notwithstanding."  I  really 
care  little,  at  my  age  and  in  my  circumstances,  about 
what  is  thought  of  my  countenance,  but  such  a  remark 
as  "strongly  sarcastic"  from  an  indifferent  observer 
made  me,  when  I  read  it,  quite  melancholy.  You 
remember  me  in  my  boyhood.  You  have  a  miniature 
of  me  taken  at  twenty-one.  "  Twenty  years,"  as 
Southey  says,  "have  wrought  strange  alteration." 
Indeed  they  have.  The  knowledge  which  I  have  been 
compelled,  against  my  will,  to  acquire  of  my  fellow- 
men  has  certainly  not  raised  them  in  my  estimation ; 
and  yet  I  am  unwilling  to  believe  that  the  feelings  with 
which  I  regard  them  are  written  on  my  features.  But 
I  fear  it  is  so.  Heaven  forgive  them  and  me. 

I  was  not  aware  that  the  article  about  Sachem's 
Head,  in  the  Mirror,  was  written  by  George  Hill, 
although  the  initials  might  have  taught  it  me  had  I 
reflected  upon  them.  I  cannot  deem  it  illy  written. 
On  the  contrary,  he  is  a  very  clever  writer.  I  always 
feel  a  sort  of  romantic  interest  in  all  I  hear  or  see  about 
Guilford,  which  you,  of  course,  from  being  on  or  near 
16* 


37o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

the  spot,  do  not  appreciate.     Still  I  thought  you  would 
be  amused  by  the  thing,  and  sent  it  accordingly. 
Yours  affectionately, 

F.  G.  H. 

In  Mrs.  Kemble's  journal,  I  meet  with  the  following 
allusion  to  Halleck  and  other  literary  celebrities,  in  the 
course  of  some  remarks  on  New- York  society:  "When 
we  arrived  in  America,  we  brought  letters  of  introduc 
tion  to  several  persons  in  New  York ;  many  were  civil 
enough  to  call  upon  us,  we  were  invited  out  to  sundry 
parties,  and  were  introduced  iato  what  is  there  called 
the  first  society.  I  do  not  wish  to  enter  into  any  de 
scription  of  it,  but  will  only  say  that  I  was  most  dis 
agreeably  astonished ;  and  had  it  been  my  fate  to  have 
passed  through  the  country  as  rapidly  as  most  travellers 
do,  I  should  have  carried  away  a  very  unfavorable  im 
pression  of  the  best  society  of  New  York.  Fortunately, 
however,  for  me,  my  visits  were  repeated  and  my  stay 
prolonged;  and,  in  the  course  of  time,  I  became 
acquainted  with  many  individuals  whose  manners  and 
acquirements  were  of  a  high  order,  and  from  whose 
intercourse  I  derived  the  greatest  gratification.  But 
they  generally  did  me  the  favor  to  visit  me,  and  I  still 
could  not  imagine  how  it  happened  that  I  never  met 
them  at  the  parties  to  which  I  was  invited,  and  in  the 
circles  where  I  visited.  I  soon  discovered  that  they 
formed  a  society  among  themselves,  where  all  those 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  yj^ 

qualities  which  I  had  looked  for  among  the  self-styled 
best  were  to  be  found.  When  I  name  Miss  Sedgwick, 
Halleck,  Irving,  Bryant,  Paulding,  and  some  of  less 
fame,  but  whose  acquirements  rendered  their  com 
panionship  delightful  indeed,  amongst  whom  I  felt 
proud  and  happy  to  find  several  of  my  own  name,  it 
will  no  longer  appear  singular  that  they  should  feel  too 
well  satisfied  with  the  resources  of  their  own  society, 
either  to  mingle  in  that  of  the  vulgar  fashionables,  or 
seek  with  avidity  the  acquaintance  of  every  stranger 
that  arrives  in  New  York.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  foreigners  have  spoken  as  they  have  of  what  is 
termed  fashionable  society  here,  or  have  condemned, 
with  unqualified  censure,  the  manners  and  tone  pre 
vailing  in  it ;  their  condemnations  are  true  and  just  as 
regards  what  they  see ;  nor,  perhaps,  would  they  be 
much  inclined  to  moderate  them  when  they  found  that 
persons,  possessing  every  quality  that  can  render  inter 
course  between  rational  creatures  desirable,  were  held 
in  light  esteem,  and  neglected,  as  either  bores,  blues, 
or  dowdies,  by  those  so  infinitely  their  inferiors  in 
every  worthy  accomplishment.  The  same  separation, 
or,  if  any  thing,  a  still  stronger  one,  subsists  in  Philadel 
phia  between  the  self-styled  fashionables  and  the  really 
good  society.  The  distinction  there  is  really  of  a  char 
acter  perfectly  ludicrous.  A  friend  of  mine  was  de 
scribing  to  me  a  family  whose  manners  were  unexcep 
tionable,  and  whose  mental  accomplishments  were  of  a 


372  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

high  order ;  upon  my  expressing  some  surprise  that  I 
had  never  met  with  them,  my  informant  replied,  '  Oh, 
no,  they  are  not  received  by  the  Chesnut-Street  set.' 
If  I  were  called  upon  to  define  that  society  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  which  ranks  (by  right  of  self- 
arrogation)  as  first  and  best,  I  should  say  it  is  a  purely 
dancing  society,  where  a  fiddle  is  indispensable  to  keep 
its  members  awake  ;  and  where  their  brains  and  tongues 
seem,  by  common  consent,  to  feel  that  they  had  much 
better  give  up  the  care  of  mutual  entertainment  to  the 
feet  of  the  parties  assembled,  and  they  judge  well. 
Now,  I  beg  leave  clearly  to  be  understood,  there  is 
another,  and  a  far  more  desirable  circle ;  but  it  is  not 
the  one  into  which  strangers  find  their  way  generally. 
To  an  Englishman,  this  fashionable  society  presents, 
indeed,  a  pitiful  sample  of  lofty  pretensions  without 
adequate  foundations.  Here  is  a  constant  endeavor  to 
imitate  those  states  of  European  society  which  have  for 
their  basis  the  feudal  spirit  of  the  early  ages,  and  which 
are  rendered  venerable  by  their  rank,  powerful  by  their 
wealth,  and  refined,  and  in  some  degree  respectable, 
by  great  and  general  mental  cultivation." 

The  poet  was  prevented  by  business  from  making 
his  usual  visit  to  Guilford  in  the  summer  of  1835,  and, 
as  it  appears,  was  not  likely  to  have  a  vacation  in  the 
season  following.  He  writes  to  Miss  Halleck,  May 
7th:  "  Would  it  be  convenient  for  you  to  meet  me  at 
New  Haven  some  Sunday  in  the  course  of  this  or  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  373 

coming  month  ?  Time  is  now  fast  altering  me,  and  I 
fear  that  in  a  few  years  more  you  would  not  know  me 
without  a  letter  of  introduction.  It  would  gratify  me 
much  to  see  you,  but  my  employment  here  will  not 
admit  of  my  absence  for  a  length  of  time.  I  propose 
to  leave  here  some  Saturday  afternoon  in  the  steam 
boat,  remain  at  New  Haven  on  the  Sunday,  and  return 
the  next  morning." 

I  come  now  to  one  of  the  little  romances  of  Mr. 
Halleck's  life,  the  memory  of  which  the  poet  num 
bered  among  the  dearest  of  his  inconsiderable  joys. 
On  the  last  evening  of  the  year  1835,  several  young 
ladies  and  gentlemen  were  assembled  at  the  house  of  a 
friend,  in  the  village  of  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio — the  birth 
place  of  General  Grant — to  watch  the  old  year  out  and 
the  new  year  in.  During  the  evening  one  of  the  party 

suggested  to  Miss  Ellen  A.   F the  propriety  of 

availing  herself  of  the  privileges  of  leap-year,  and  chal 
lenging  some  literary  gentleman  to  a  correspondence, 
and  mentioned,  as  likely  to  relish  the  joke,  the  bachelor 
poet,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck.  Miss  Ellen,  a  pretty  and 
gifted  young  Quakeress,  accordingly  addressed  a  poeti 
cal  epistle  to  him,  dated  leap-year,  under  the  assumed 
name  of  "  Ellen  A.  F.  Campbell,"  playfully  offering  Mr. 
Halleck  her  hand  and  heart.  The  lady's  poem  was  of 
precisely  the  same  length  and  measure  as  the  poet's  re 
ply.  I  exceedingly  regret  my  inability  to  recover  it,  no 
copy  existing  among  Mr.  Halleck's  papers,  and  the 


274  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

heroine  of  this  romantic  episode  having  died  many 
years  ago,  and  her  family  gone,  no  one  knows  where. 
Prefixed  to  the  poem  "  To  Ellen  (The  Mocking-Bird)," 
was  the  following  letter,  exhibiting  that  characteristic 
modesty  for  which  he  was  so  remarkable  : 

[TO   MISS  E.   A.   F.    CAMPBELL.] 

DEAR  Miss  CAMPBELL  :  Were  it  not  that  the  de 
lightfully  flattering  lines  with  which  you  have  favored 
me  date  "  Bissextile,"  I  should  have  taken  post-horses 
for  Albi  Cottage  immediately  on  receiving  them. 
As  it  is,  I  thank  you  from  my  heart  for  your  merry 
mock-bird's  song.  Though  they  did  not  seriously  in 
tend  to  make  me  a  happy  man,  they  have  certainly 
made  me  a  very  proud  one.  I  have  attempted  some 
verses  in  the  style  of  your  own  beautiful  lines,  and  I 
hope  you  will  laugh  gently  at  their  imperfections,  for 
they  are  the  first,  with  a  trifling  exception,  that  I  have 
written  for  years.  Would  they  were  better  worthy  of 
their  subject !  A  new  edition  of  the  humble  writings 
which  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to  meet  with  your  ap 
probation  has  recently  been  published  here.  It  is,  to 
use  the  printer's  phrase,  "  prettily  got  up."  Will  you 
pardon  the  liberty  I  take  in  asking  you  to  accept  a  copy 
from  me,  in  consideration  of  the  beauty  of  its  type  and 
the  vastness  of  its  margin,  and  may  I  hope  for  a  return 
to  this  letter,  informing  me  by  what  conveyance  I  can 
have  the  honor  of  forwarding  it  to  you? 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  375 

I  am,  dear  Miss  Campbell,  very  gratefully,  or,  if 
you  are  in  good  earnest,  as  I  very  much  fear  you  are 
not,  I  am,  dearest  Ellen,  very  affectionately  yours, 
FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

The  Scottish  border-minstrel's  lay 
Entranced  me  oft  in  boyhood's  day ; 

His  forests,  glens,  and  streams, 
Mountains,  and  heather  blooming  fair  ; 
A  Highland  lake  and  lady  were 

The  playmates  of  my  dreams. 

Years  passed  away ;  my  dreams  were  gone ; 
My  pilgrim  footsteps  pressed  alone 

Loch  Katrine's  storied  shores  ; 
And  winds  that  winged  me  o'er  the  lake 
Breathed  low,  as  if  they  feared  to  break 

The  music  of  my  oars. 

No  tramp  of  warrior-men  was  heard ; 
For  welcome-song  or  challenge-word 

I  listened,  but  in  vain  ; 
And,  moored  beneath  his  fav'rite  tree, 
As  vainly  wooed  the  minstrelsy 

Of  gray-haired  "Allan  Bane." 

I  saw  the  Highland  heath-flower  smile 
In  beauty  upon  Ellen's  isle  ; 

And,  couched  in  Ellen's  bower, 
I  watched,  beneath  the  latticed  leaves, 
Her  coming,  through  a  summer  eve's 

Youngest  and  loveliest  hour. 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

She  came  not ;  lonely  was  her  home ; 
Herself  of  airy  shapes  that  come, 

Like  shadows,  to  depart. 
Are  there  two  Ellens  of  the  mind  ? 
Or  have  I  lived  at  last  to  find 

An  Ellen  of  the  heart  ? 

For  music  like  the  borderer's  now 
Rings  round  me,  and  again  I  bow 

Before  the  shrine  of  song, 
Devoutly  as  I  bowed  in  youth ; 
For  hearts  that  worship  there  in  truth 

And  joy  are  ever  young. 

And  well  my  harp  responds  to-day, 
And  willingly  its  chords  obey 

The  minstrel's  loved  command  : 
A  minstrel-maid  whose  infant  eyes 
Looked  on  Ohio's  woods  and  skies, 

My  school-book's  sunset  land. 

And  beautiful  the  wreath  she  twines 
Round  "  Albi  Cottage,"  bowered  in  vines, 

Or  blest  in  sleigh-bell  mirth ; 
And  lovelier  still  her  smile,  that  seems 
To  bid  me  welcome  in  my  dreams 

Beside  its  peaceful  hearth. 

Long  shall  I  deem  that  winning  smile 
But  a  mere  mockery,  to  beguile 
Some  lonely  hour  of  care. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  377 

And  will  this  Ellen  prove  to  be, 
But  like  her  namesake  o'er  the  sea, 
A  being  of  the  air  ? 

Or  shall  I  take  the  morning's  wing, 
Armed  with  a  parson  and  a  ring, 

Speed  hill  and  vale  along, 
And  at  her  cottage-hearth,  ere  night, 
«.   Change  into  flutterings  of  delight, 
Or  (what's  more  likely)  of  affright, 

The  merry  mock-bird's  song  ? 

The  poet's  letters  to  Ellen  Campbell,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  one  accompanying  the-  above  poem,  I 
have  not  succeeded  in  recovering,  but  the  following 
epistles,  written  by  the  pretty  young  Quakeress  to  the 
poet  in  answer  to  his  communications,  may  not  be 
without  interest,  at  least  to  the  younger  portion  of  my 
readers : 

[TO   FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

ALBI  COTTAGE,  March  26,  1836. 

I  know  not  whether  to  thank  you,  "  Glorious 
Stranger,"  for  having  created  a  new  era  in  my  exist 
ence,  or  to  lament  that  your  goodness  and  condescen 
sion  have  done  me  a  deep  and  irreparable  injury.  I 
feel  that  I  am  no  longer  the  unambitious,  contented 
cottage-maid,  with  wishes  and  hopes  confined  within 
her  humble  sphere,  joining 


-jyS  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

"  In  the  laugh  of  forest  girls, 
That  braid  their  sunny  hair," 

or,  smiling  with  pride  and  pleasure  over  a  sonnet  to 
her  eyebrow,  or  an  apostrophe  to  Albi  Cottage,  rude 
as  the  hands  that  penned  them.  "  Oh,  never  more  on 
me  "  those  glow-worm  sparks  can  shed  a  ray  of  light. 
Cold,  fastidious,  and  impatient,  I  turn  away  to  worship 
my  own  bright  luminary  of  the  East,  beneath  whose 
radiant  beams  my  heart,  like  Mcmnon's  harp,  gives 
out  its  hidden  music. 

Words  fail  me  to  tell  you,  nor  can  you  realize  my 
feelings  on  the  reception  of  your  delightful  packet ! 
Had  you,  in  the  zenith  of  your  enthusiasm,  admiration, 
and  reverence  for  "  The  Scottish  Border  Minstrel," 
received  from  his  hand  such  a  treasure,  you  might  have 
clasped  it  in  a  delirium  of  gratitude,  exultation,  and 
pride ;  but  to  these  you  could  not  add  the  crowned 
hopes,  and  fears,  and  doubts,  and  daring  of  woman's 
heart.  That  my  simple,  untutored  rhymes  should  be 
compared  by  Fitz-Grcene  Halleck  to  Walter  Scott's, 
was  too,  too  flattering,  even  for  the  "  pleasant  mock 
ery  "  with  which  you  convince  me  you  do  not  mean  to 
be  buried  "without  benefit  of  clergy.  But  "waters 
gushing  from  the  fountain-spring  of  pure  enthusiast 
thought  "  dim  my  eyes,  while  I  peruse  those  beautiful 
lines  whose  exquisite  pathos  and  wit  declare  by  what 
unrivalled  pen  they  were  traced ;  and  that  I  have,  by 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  379 

any  means,  even  for  a  moment,  recalled  the  sweetest 
minstrel  of  my  country  to  his  neglected  harp,  is  cause 
of  the  proudest  exultation.  But  there  is  one  part  of 
your  letter,  dear  Halleck,  in  which  you  cannot,  must 
not  jest.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  ardently,  how  impa 
tiently  I  have  coveted  the  delightful'volumc  you  promise 
me ;  for  not  so  silent  to  the  voice  of  Fame  are  the 
echoes  of 

"  My  own  green  forest-land," 

that  we  have  not  heard  of  its  beauty  and  merit ;  and 
eager  expectation  stands  tiptoe  on  the  misty  heights  of 
the  blue  Ohio,  to  hail  its  approach.  Highly  as  I  should 
prize  the  treasure,  however  obtained,  to  receive  it  from 
your  hand  will  tenfold  enhance  its  value.  I  have  de 
layed  answering  your  letter,  with  the  hope  of  being  able 
to  point  out  some  suitable  means  for  its  conveyance. 
Our  merchants  are  discouraged  from  going  to  New 
York  for  goods  the  present  season,  on  account  of  the 
great  destruction  by  the  recent  conflagration.  And  I 
know  not  how  to  obtain  patience  to  wait  for  some  acci 
dental  opportunity.  There  is  much  intercourse  between 
your  city  and  Wheeling.  If  it  should  be  in  your  power 
to  send  it  to  Mr.  Lewis  Walker,  Wheeling,  Va.,  for 
Dr.  William  Planner,  of  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio,  I  be 
lieve  nothing  better  can  be  done  at  present. 

I  dare  not  ask  you  to  write  to  me  again.     You  have 
already  done  me  but  too  much  honor.     I  know  it  is  im- 


380  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

possible  you  can  derive  any  pleasure  from  such  a  cor 
respondence.  Perhaps  in  pity  you  ought  not — for  I  feel 
that  I  am  "  playing  with  fire  " — but  if  it -be  true,  that 
"  what  comes  from  the  heart  carries  conviction  to  the 
heart,"  you  will  feel  there  is  no  fiction  here. 

Oh,  not  in  Fashion's  crowded  hall, 

When  every  eye  is  turned  to  thee, 
To  thee,  the  brightest  star  of  all 

That  form  her  brilliant  galaxy,     • 
Nor  when  the  hand  of  deathless  Fame 

A  garland  for  thy  brow  shall  twine, 
And  proudly  trumpet  forth  thy  name, 

I  would  not  claim  one  thought  of  thine. 

But  when  the  busy  crowd  is  gone, — 

And  brightly  on  the  Western  sky 
The  changeful  sunset  hues  are  thrown — 

Oh,  wilt  thou  thither  turn  thine  eye 
And  send  one  gentle  thought  to  her, 

Whose  spirit  ever  turns  to  thine, 
Like  Persia's  idol-worshipper, 

Or  Moslem  to  his  prophet's  shrine  ? 

ELLEN. 

ALBI  COTTAGE,  Sept.  25,  1836.  • 

I  little  thought  it  possible  that  it  could  ever  be  my 
duty  to  apologize  to  my  gifted  correspondent  F.  G. 
H.,  whose  notice  I  had  so  warmly  solicited,  and  ob 
tained  with  so  much  pride  and  pleasure.  Yet  when  I 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  381 

refer  to  your  last  letter,  and  see  that  three  months  have 
elapsed,  and  its  reception  yet  unacknowledged,  I  fear 
I  have  incurred  the  charge  of  ingratitude.  You  wrong 
me,  if  you  think  so.  The  wish  and  intention  to  write 
to  you  have  mingled  with  my  thoughts  by  day  and  my 
dreams  by  night :  but  I  hope  to  be  able  to  inform  you 
of  the  arrival  of  one,  at  least,  of  the  books  you  men 
tioned.  "  By  disappointment  every  day  beguiled," 
day  stole  upon  day,  and  week  upon  week,  and  all  my 
applications  (repeatedly  made  at  every  probable  place) 
have  proved  fruitless.  My  last  messenger  has  just  re 
turned,  and  brought,  as  usual,  only  "  hope  deferred." 
If  you  should  do  me  the  honor  to  write  again,  will  you 
have  the  goodness  to  point  to  whose  address,  and  where 
I  shall  apply,  both  in  Pittsburg  and  Wheeling?  I 
cannot  bear  the  idea  of  losing  it.  The  other,  in  the 
care  of  Mrs.  F.  (who  has  been  detained  longer  than  she 
anticipated),  I  believe  I  shall  obtain  some  time,  though 
that  time  is  at  present  uncertain. 

Though,  as  a  gentleman,  it  can  afford  you  no  grati 
fication  to  be  a  subject  of  personal  interest  to  a  simple 
paysanne  whom  you  have  never  seen,  and  never  will, 
yet  as  a  poet,  you  will  not  scorn  the  conviction  that 
your  tuneful  lyre  has  made  your  name  a  word  of  music 
and  beauty  in  the  rural  cottages  and  beneath  the 
"  Buckeye  "  shades  of  the  far  West.  Perhaps  a  stronger 
evidence  that  it  breathes  the  eloquence. of  truth  and 
nature,  than  that  it  is  a  theme  of  pride  and  approba- 


.582  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

tion  among  the  "  savans  "  of  your  own  fair  Eastern 
land.  But  I  fear,  from  some  expressions  in  your  last 
letter,  that  I  have  been  very  impertinent.  Probably 
more  so  than  I  am  myself  aware  :  for  I  know  you  but 
as  the  master  of  the  lyre — 

"  Who  can  rule  like  a  wizard  the  world  of  the  heart, 
And  call  up  its  sunshine  and  bring  down  its  showers." 

If  I  have  committed  an  error,  I  must  retaliate  on  you, 
by  saying  "it  is  your  own  fault."  While  reading  the 
works  of  an  author,  especially  a  poet,  who  does  not,  un 
consciously,  conceive  an  idea  of  the  author  ?  his  mind, 
his  heart,  his  temperament,  his  very  face  and  person  ? 
and  if  my  admiration  dwells  principally  on  the  taste, 
feeling,  and  poetic  excellence  of  your  writings,  my  pre 
sumption  is  based  on  their  sportive  humor  and  piquant 
jests.  I  hope  you  will  not  call  this  flattery.  It  is  said 
in  self-defence,  with  many  a  sad  misgiving,  that  I  am 
more  indebted  to  your  gallantry  than  your  esteem  for 
the  favors  you  have  bestowed  on  me. 

In  vain  I  have  looked  around  for  some  recent  lite 
rary  production  of  the  West,  worthy  of  your  acceptance, 
and  of  my  own  feelings.  I  have  nothing — save  a  vow 
of  imperishable  gratitude  for  your  kindness,  admira 
tion  of  your  talents,  and  prayers  for  your  happiness. 
Respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

E.  A.  F.  CAMPBELL. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


383 


ALBI  COTTAGE,  Nov.  20,  1836. 

I  hope  you  will  not,  my  dear  sir,  think  me  intru 
sive,  that  I  come  once  more  unbidden.  I  feel  that  it 
will  be  a  relief  to  my  grateful  feelings  to  inform  you 
that  your  kindness  has  not  been  thrown  away  or  unap 
preciated.  In  September  I  wrote  to  you,  explaining 
why  I  had  so  long  delayed  acknowledging  yours  of  June 
25th.  At  that  time  I  understood  from  Mrs.  Planner's 
friends  that  she  would  probably  spend  the  autumn, 
possibly  the  winter,  in  the  State  of  New  York.  On 
the  contrary,  soon  afterward,  she  passed  through 
Wheeling,  but  too  ill  to  attend  to  any  thing ;  conse 
quently  the  book  you  had  committed  to  her  care  was 
taken  on  to  Zanesville,  eighty  miles  from  Mount 
Pleasant,  and  has  just  now  found  its  way  back  again. 
I  must  not  again  displease  you  by  my  excessive 
acknowledgments.  You  are  accustomed  to  praise, 
perhaps  to  censure.  It  is  an  author's  fate ;  and  the 
opinion  of  a  peasant-girl,  whom  a  combination  of  cir 
cumstances  has  deeply  prepossessed,  and  to  whom  this 
book  has  been,  for  a  number  of  months,  a  subject  of 
the  greatest  solicitude,  admits  of  neither  doubt  nor  in 
terest.  I  have  seen  a  number  of  beautiful  things  attrib 
uted  to  your  pen  which  are  not  in  this  collection.  I 
presume  you  meant  to  set  criticism  at  defiance  with 
this  volume ;  and  yet,  with  all  its  regal  external  charms 
and  internal  perfections,  it  has  a  fault — at  least,  I  wish 
for  something  more.  There  is  no  portrait,  no  biog- 


384  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

raphy.  But  I  do  not  forget  you  bid  me  "  receive  it  as 
your  representative."  You  could  not  have  chosen  a 
fairer.  This  is  the  third  attempt  I  have  made  to  write 
to  you  since  the  reception  of  your  beautiful  present. 
The  first  was  the  inspiration  which  it  brought,  un 
tutored  rhymes;  but,  when^I  had  compared  them  for 
an  instant  with  their  subject,  I  threw  them  in  the  fire. 
Every  step  that  I  have  made  in  your  acquaintance  has 
increased  my  timidity.  With  a  reckless  laugh  I  flung 
my  first  offering  on  the  current  of  accident,  little  think 
ing  it  would  ever  bring  me  back  tears  and  smiles, 
anxious  thoughts  and  fevered  dreams.  Yet  I  cannot 
repent  it,  when  I  look  at  the  beautiful  volume  before 
me,  or  on  what  is  still  more  beautiful  to  my  eye  and 
more  dear  to  my  heart — the  lines  "To  Ellen,"  your 
own  autograph. 

The  term  of  my  privilege  will  soon  expire.  This  is 
probably  the  last  time  I  shall  ever  address  you,  but 
e'er  I  make  my  parting  bow,  permit  me  to  return  my 
most  sincere  and  cordial  thanks  for  the  gentle  courtesy 
with  which  you  have  entertained  my  idle  folly,  and 
more  than  crowned  my  most  ambitious  hopes.  I 
never,  till  now,  repined  at  the  want  of  talents,  fashion, 
and  accomplishments,  that  I  might,  fearlessly  and 
undisguisedly,  challenge  your  friendship  and  esteem. 
It  may  not  be.  You  will  soon  forget  this  idle  corre 
spondence  and  my  very  existence,  but  the  name  of 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck  is  forever  engraven  by  the  hand 
of  gratitude  on  the  heart  of  ELLEN. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  385 

May  health  and  pleasure,  wealth  and  fame, 

United,  be  thy  happy  lot, 
When  joy  and  hope  thy  thoughts  shall  claim, 
And  Beauty  blushes  at  thy  name, 

I  will  not  ask — forget  me  not. 

But  should  misfortune's  chilling  frown 

Thy  cherished  schemes  of  comfort  blot, 
When  sunshine,  friends,  and  joys,  are  flown, 
Should  thy  crushed  heart  feel  left  alone, 
Without  a  friend — forget  me  not. 

Should  Fame  a  mocking  phantom  prove, 
And  Fortune's  promise  be  forgot, 

Thy  heart  will  pause,  thy  thoughts  will  rove, 

To  friendship,  gratitude,  and  love, 

Dear  Halleck,  then — forget  me  not. 

P.  S. — If  I  have  not  already  intruded  too  much  on 
your  time  and  attention,  it  would  be  a  gratification  to 
know  that  you  received  this  letter. 

MOUNT  PLEASANT,  Feb.  8,  1837. 

I  certainly  did  suppose  I  had  written  to  Mr.  Halleck 
for  the  last  time ;  but  you  know,  before  I  confess  it, 
that  I  am  but  too  happy  to  be  convinced  by  your  pro 
found  "logic,"  that  it  is  not  only  my  privilege,  but 
duty,  to  acknowledge  how  much  I  am  indebted  to  you 
for  your  last  kind  and  humorous  epistle.  I  do  assure 
you  there  is  no  affectation  in  acknowledging  that  your 
witty  assumption  of  your  extensive  " privilege"  has 
17 


386  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

delivered  my  " woman's  pride"  from  "the  bastile  of  a 
word,"  for  whose  adamantine  bars,  perhaps,  I  have  not 
shown  a  proper  reverence,  but  such  a  prize  as  I  gained 
was  worth  the  daring — beyond  my  most  sanguine 
hopes,  but  never  to  be  repeated,  for  higher  I  cannot 
gain,  less  I  could  not  prize,  now. 

You  are  right  in  supposing  I  have  not  received  the 
Mirror  you  mention,  and  I  pray  you  do  not  think  for 
a  moment  that  I  am  indifferent  about  it  because  I  have 
not  earlier  advised  you  of  the  fact.  I  was  absent  from 
home,  and  did  not  receive  your  letter  so  soon  as  I 
should  otherwise  have  done.  You  ask  if  I  have  "  any 
curiosity  about  it."  "  Curiosity  !  "  What  a  poor  word  ! 
I  am  not  sure  that  you  would  be  pleased  to  be  told 
how  much  your  humble  cottager  will  prize  the  picture 
you  promised  her,  but  you  will  not  be  displeased  with 
the  conviction  that  "  Fitz-Greene  Halleck"  is  a  subject 
of  more  than  mere  curiosity  to  the  daughters  of  Amer 
ica.  I  shall  count  the  time  by  hours  till  this  letter  has 
had  time  to  reach  you,  and  the  Mirror  to  return. 

While  reading  your  reference  to  your  late  illness,  I 
could  have  wept  to  think  that  the  author  of  u  Bozzaris  " 
should  be  subject  to  "  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,"  but 
you  must  pardon  me  that  your  irreverent  conjectures 
concerning  the  beautiful  volume  committed  to  the 
Messrs.  Harper  unhinged  my  grief  and  gravity.  If 
such  be  the  fact,  it  deserves  an  elegy,  at  least  an  epi 
taph,  but  I  will  not  admit  so  profane  a  jest.  Wherever 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  3 87 

it  be,  I  doubt  not  it  is  prized  and  cherished,  but  I  can 
not  say  its  present  possessor  is  at  all  welcome. 

I  have  written  this  note  in  much  haste,  to  embrace 
this  opportunity,  and  beg  you  will  pardon  its  defi 
ciencies.  . 

Ever  yours,  ELLEN. 

AI.BI  COTTAGE,  April  18,  1837. 

I  have  resolved  and  reresolved  on  the  subject  of 
writing  to  you,  and  am  yet  undecided.  Pride  and 
"etiquette,"  on  one  hand,  remind  me  that  "a  new 
year  has  arrived,"  and  that  I  have  not  received  a  letter 
from  you  since  I  wrote  to  you ;  while  my  heart  asserts 
that  I  ought  to  have  written  to  you  immediately  on  the 
reception  of  the  portrait  which  you  were  so  kind  as  to 
send  me,  thanking  you  for  it  in  such  language  as  my 
heart  dictated.  You  see  to  which  I  have  finally  pre 
ferred  listening.  It  may  be  possible  you  did  not 
receive  my  letter  from  Washington,  and  that  the  Mir 
ror  I  have  received  is  the  one  you  mentioned  as  having 
been  sent  previous  to  the  date  of  your  last  letter.  If 
so,  I  fear  you  will  think  my  delay  unpardonable ;  but 
you  must  not  believe  for  an  instant  that  the  shadow  of 
ingratitude  ever  passed  over  the  least  of  the  favors  you 
have  bestowed  on  me.  You  would  not  if  you  knew 
how  constitutionally  and  habitually  cold,  indifferent, 
and  indolent  I  am,  and  yet  how  long  and  how  de 
votedly  I  have  knelt  before  the  idol  of  my  fancy,  the 


2 88  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

beau  ideal  of  imagination  ;  or  witnessed  the  reception 
of  the  packet  containing  the  Mirror,  and  the  im 
petuous  ebb  and  flow  of  the  vital  current  of  my  heart, 
as  the  portrait  of  "  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  "  met  my  eye, 
and  I  felt  the  conviction  that  he  is  not 

"  A  being  of  the  air,-' 

while  for  a  moment  I  expected  to  see  the  curled  lip 
relax  and  the  spirit  of  Democritus  become  audible. 
You  tell  me  it  is  "an  ugly  likeness "  !  What  would 
you  have  me  believe  ?  Though  four  or  five  hundred 
miles  divide  us,  and  in  all  probability  always  will,  a 
space  that  might  veil  my  blushes,  if  I  should  have  the 
grace  to  blush,  yet  I  will  not  tell  you  all  I  think  about 
it.  I  would  go  a  pilgrimage  to  look  on  the  magnificent 
brow  and  eloquent  eye,  but  not  for  worlds  would  I  one 
moment  brook  the  satirical  mockery  which  the  lower 
part  of  the  face  expresses.  I  have  framed  it,  to  pre 
serve  it  from  injury,  but  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  tell 
you  where  I  ha\te  hung  it,  nor  how  often  I  look  at  it, 
nor  how  impatient  I  am  sometimes  with  the  placid 
immobility  with  which  it  looks  on  all  the  fanciful  apos 
trophes  and  sonnets  addressed  to  it,  as  pathetic  as 
Petrarch's,  and  quite  as  sincere,  though,  unfortunately, 
the  comparison  ends  there. 

And  I  am  only  less  obliged  to  you  for  the  Mirror 
itself.  Is  it  our  poet  Bryant  who  has  written  the 
beautiful  and  appropriate  eulogy  on  your  writings,  and 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  389 

*so  gracefully  and  candidly  yielded  you  the  palm  ?  He 
has  written  many  good  things  that  do  honor  to  his 
taste  and  judgment,  and  this  is  one  of  them.  I  shall 
always  think  the  better  of  my  humble  opinion  for  its 
having  been  originally  like  Bryant's,  especially  with 
regard  to  "  Marco  Bozzaris  "  and  "  Red  Jacket."  It  is 
not  the  first  time  I  have  seen  the  merits  of  the  latter 
compared  with  those  of  Campbell's  "  Ontalissi,"  but 
never  saw  or  heard  the  difference  more  truly  expressed. 
Had  I  been  at  his  side  when  he  was  penning  the 
article,  I  would  have  petitioned  for  some  comments  on 
some  of  the  smaller  pieces,  "  To  the  memory  of  Dr. 
Drake,"  "  Love,"  "  Twilight,"  etc.,  lines  that  are  un 
surpassed  in  our  language.  I  do  not  mean  to  flatter 
you,  and  the  opinion  of  a  rustic  damsel  who  has  never 
in  her  life  seen  the  inside  of  a  ball-room  or  theatre, 
and  who  has  no  pretension  to  learning  or  wisdom, 
would  be  utterly  impotent  were  it  not  in  accordance 
with  the  voice  of  Fame,  and  by  critics  and  rivals  ad 
mitted.  .-*: 

Since  the  above  was  written,  a  dear  friend  of  mine, 
who  has  a  peculiar  penchant  for  mischief  and  consider 
able  skill  in  copying,  has  presented  me  with  an  outline 
of  myself  in  masquerade,  and  dared  me,  under  the 
penalty  of  a  heavy  forfeit,  to  show  it  to  you.  It  is 
declared  on  all  sides  to  be  a  striking  likeness,  though 
roughly  cut  with  scissors.  Will  you  condescend  to 


390  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

look  at  this  prim  shadow  of  your  friend  Ellen,  and  then 
do  her  the  favor  to  throw  it  in  the  fire  ? 


The  following  letter  is  in  answer  to  one  written  to 
him  by  Mr.  Lawrence  expressing  his  acknowledgments 
to  the  poet  for  the  pleasure  he  had  received  in  meet 
ing  with  the  playful  and  poetical  acceptance  of  Ellen 
Campbell's  heart  and  hand,  and  also  enclosing  an  old 
colonial  bill  of  Connecticut : 

[TO   RICHARD  LAWRENCE.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Aiig.  4,  1858. 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  had  the  honor  of  receiving  your 
letter  of  the  2d  instant,  and  hasten  to  beg  you  to 
believe  me  most  earnestly  grateful  for  the  high  com 
pliments  it  pays  me,  and  for  the  so  "rich  and  rare" 
present,  its  companion — the  latter  binding  me  at  once 
with  the  dignity  and  the  vote  of  a  "  forty-shilling 
freeholder,"  and  cherishing  and  preserving  it,  as  I 
shall  not  fail  to  do,  as  an  inviolable  investment, 
drawing  compound  interest,  its  possession  will  insure 
me  from  posterity  the  respect  due  to  a  "millionnaire," 
and  falsify  the  proverbial  rebuke  that  verse-making  is 
not  money-making.  I  am  also  greatly  obliged  by  your 
kind  inquiries  about  the  "  Croakers."  I  have  always 
declined  consenting  to  their  republication,  but  they 
have  been  several  times  embodied  without  my  previous 
knowledge  in  a  volume  more  or  less  imperfect,  although 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^ 

generously  improved  by  additions  from  other  and  un 
known  sources.  All,  however,  I  presume,  have  long 
since  vanished  from  the  book-market.  I  have  never 
deemed  my  portion  of  them  worthy  of  collection  or 
recollection.  They  were  harmless  pleasantries,  luckily 
suited  to  the  hour  of  their  appearance,  and  their  in 
terest  and  value  passed  away  with  it. 

Your  allusion  to  the  Ohio  River  alike  surprises  and 
delights  me,  for  it  induces  me  more  confidently  to 
hope  that  you  will  hasten  to  give  me  happy  tidings 
of  the  welfare  of  the  lady  you  name,  the  heroine  of 
one  of  my  life's  most  cherished  romances,  whose  mem 
ory  has  heretofore  been  numbered  among  the  dearest 
of  my  inconsiderable  joys.  Mr.  Hicks,  the  painter, 
some  two  years  since,  hinted  to  me  his  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  but  seemed  very  sly  and  shy  about 
it,  to  my  exceeding  grief  and  disappointment.  I 
shall  impatiently  wait  for  the  kindness  of  your  fur 
ther  communications,  so  full  of  interest  as  they  will 
be  to  me. 

Renewing  my  grateful  acknowledgments  of  your 
flattering  courtesy,  I  am,  dear  sir,  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

A  second  edition  of  Halleck's  miscellaneous  poems, 
with  the  same  title  as  the  first,  but  with  the  addition 
of  a  number  of  new  pieces,  was  published  by  George 
Dearborn,  of  New  York,  who,  during  the  previous 


392  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

year,  had  brought  out  an  edition  of  the  poetical  writ 
ings  of  Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  fitly  dedicated  by  his 
daughter  to  her  father's  friend,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck. 
The  following  letter  mentions  the  new  collection  of  his 
verses  and  the  poet's  gratification  that  they  should  be 
admired  by  his  friend  John  Ouincy  Adams  : 

[TO   MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Jan.  23,  1836. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  handed  to  Mr.  Harvey 
Spencer  a  package  addressed  to  you.  He  promises  to 
forward  it  by  the  first  opportunity.  It  contains  a  copy 
of  the  new  edition  of  my  verses,  and  a  copy  of  the 
"  Byron"  which  I  edited  some  years  ago.  Of  the  lat 
ter,  some  of  the  notes,  I  do  not  now  recollect  which, 
and  the  sketch  of  the  life,  were  written  by  me.  I  have 
also  enclosed  in  the  package  two  pamphlets,  the  one 
as  a  specimen  of  the  " puffs  direct"  which  my  verses 
have  brought  me,  the  other  of  the  personal  compli 
ments.  Of  these  last,  I  am  quite  proud  of  Mr.  Adams's 
"admiration."  Though  not  destined  to  be  famed  as 
a  poet,  he  is  a  thorough-bred  scholar,  and  his  opinions 
on  literary  subjects  are  worthy  of  respect.  I  fancied 
that  these  flatteries  might  gratify  you,  and  therefore 
sent  them.  For  my  own  part,  the  only  instance  where 
I  have  cared  enough  for  my  temporary  notoriety,  to 
wish  the  remarks  of  reviews,  etc.,  about  me  true,  was 
some  weeks  since,  on  seeing  in  a  Paris  paper  a  para- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  393 

graph  concerning  my  writings,  which  stated  that  I  was 
"  une  riche  banquier  qui  a  fait  fortune,"  a  banker  who 
had  made  himself  rich.  They  probably  mistook  Bu 
cephalus  for  his  groom.  I  would  give  all  these  "  golden 
opinions  of  all  sorts  of  people  "  for  a  few  golden  guin 
eas — a  very  few. 

Yours  affectionately, 

F.  G.  HALLECK. 

Apropos  of  the  concluding  portion  of  the  foregoing 
letter,  I  have  been  favored  by  Mrs.  Rush,  of  Phila 
delphia,  with  the  following  anonymous  lines,  which  she 
copied  from  a  newspaper  many  years  ago,  and  which 
were  entitled  a  "  Description  of  the  poet  Halleck  :  " 

Methought  that  brow,  so  full  and  fair, 
Was  formed  the  poet's  wreath  to  wear ; 
And  as  those  eyes  of  azure  hue, 
One  moment  lifted,  met  my  view, 
Gay  worlds  of  starry  thoughts  appeared 
In  their  blue  depths  serenely  sphered. 
Still  to  his  task  the  bard  applied, 
Unrecked,  unheeded  all  beside ; 
And  as  he  closed  the  solemn  sheet, 
I  heard  his  murmuring  lips  repeat — 
Total  a  semi-million  clear 
Income  received  for  one  short  year  ; 
Aladdin's  wealth  scarce  mounted  faster 
At  its  spring-tide  than  thine,  Herr  Astor. 


394  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

A  few  months  after  the  publication  of  the  new  edi 
tion  of  Halleck's  poems,  there  was  published  in  the 
New-York  Mirror  a  fine  engraving  on  steel  of  Henry 
Inman's  portrait  of  the  poet  (previously  referred  to  in 
Mr.  Halleck's  letters),  accompanied  by  an  article  from 
the  pen  of  his  friend  William  Cullen  Bryant.  From 
this  estimate  of  a  brother-poet,  with  which  every  reader 
of  taste  must  agree,  I  quote  the  following  paragraph  : 
"  Sometimes,"  says  Mr.  Bryant,  "  in  the  midst  of  a 
strain  of  harmonious  diction,  and  soft  and  tender  im 
agery,  he  surprises  by  an  irresistible  stroke  of  ridicule, 
as  if  he  took  pleasure  in  showing  the  reader  that  the 
poetical  vision  he  had  raised  was  but  a  cheat.  Some 
times,  with  that  aerial  facility  which  is  his  peculiar 
endowment,  he  accumulates  graceful  and  agreeable 
images  in  a  strain  of  irony  so  fine  that,  did  not  the 
subject  compel  the  reader  to  receive  it  as  irony,  he 
would  take  it  for  a  beautiful  passage  of  serious  poetry — 
so  beautiful  that  he  is  tempted  to  regret  that  he  is  not 
in  earnest,  and  that  phrases  so  exquisitely  chosen,  and 
poetic  coloring  so  brilliant,  should  be  employed  to 
embellish  subjects  to  which  they  do  not  properly  be 
long.  At  other  times  he  produces  the  effect  of  wit  by 
dexterous  allusion  to  contemporaneous  events,  intro 
duced  as  illustrations  to  the  main  subject,  with  all  the 
unconscious  gracefulness  of  the  most  animated  and 
familiar  conversation.  He  delights  in  ludicrous  con 
trasts,  produced  by  bringing  the  nobleness  of  the  ideal 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  395 

world  into  comparison  with  the  homeliness  of  the 
actual ;  the  beauty  and  grace  of  Nature  with  the  awk 
wardness  of  Art.  He  venerates  the  past,  and  laughs  at 
the  present.  He  looks  at  them  through  a  medium 
which  lends  to  the  former  the  charm  of  romance,  and 
exaggerates  the  deformity  of  the  latter.  His  poetry, 
whether  serious  or  sprightly,  is  remarkable  for  the 
melody  of  the  numbers.  It  is  not  the  melody  of  mo 
notonous  and  strictly  regular  measurement.  His  verse 
is  constructed  to  please  an  ear  naturally  fine,  and 
accustomed  to  a  range  of  metrical  modulation.  It  is 
as  different  from  that  painfully-balanced  versification, 
that  uniform  succession  of  iambics,  closing  the  sense 
with  the  couplet,  which  some  writers  practice,  and 
some  critics  praise,  as  the  note  of  the  thrush  is  unlike 
that  of  the  cuckoo.  He  is  familiar  with  those  general 
rules  and  principles  which  are  the  basis  of  metrical 
harmony ;  and  his  own  unerring  taste  has  taught  him 
the  exceptions  which  a  proper  variety  demands.  He 
understands  that  the  rivulet  is  made  musical  by  ob 
structions  in  its  channel.  In  no  poet  can  be  found  pas 
sages  which  flow  with  more  sweet  and  liquid  smooth 
ness  ;  but  he  knows  very  well  that,  to  make  this  smooth 
ness  perceived,  and  to  prevent  it  from  degenerating 
into  monotony,  occasional  roughness  must  be  inter 
posed." 

In  the  following  letter  the  gifted  and  unfortunate 
child  of  genius,  Edgar  A.  Poe,  solicits  from  his  brother- 


396  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

poet  contributions  to  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger, 
of  which  periodical,  published  at  Richmond,  Virginia, 
he  was  then  the  editor  : 

[TO    FITZ-GREENE    HALLECK.] 

RICHMOND,  VA.,  June  7,  1836. 

DEAR  SIR  :  At  the  request  of  the  proprietor  of  the 
Southern  Literary  Messenger ',  I  take  the  liberty  of  ad 
dressing  you,  and  of  soliciting  some  little  contribution 
to  our  journal.  It  is  well  known  to  us  that  you  are 
continually  pestered  with  similar  applications  ;  we  are, 
therefore,  ready  to  believe  that  we  have  little  chance 
of  success  in  this  attempt  to  engage  you  in  our 
interest — yet  we  owe  it  to  the  magazine  to  make  the 
effort. 

One  consideration  will,  we  think,  have  its  influence 
with  you  :  our  publication  is  the  first  successful  literary 
attempt  of  Virginia,  and  has  been  now,  for  eighteen 
months,  forcing  its  way  unaided,  and  against  a  host  of 
difficulties,  into  the  public  view  and  attention. 

We  wish  to  issue,  if  possible,  a  number  of  the  Mes 
senger,  consisting  altogether  of  articles  from  our  most 
distinguished  literati,  and  to  this  end  we  have  received 
aid  from  a  variety  of  high  sources.  To  omit  your  name 
in  .the  plan  we  propose  would  be  not  only  a  negative 
sin  on  our  part,  but  would  be  a  positive  injury  to  our 
cause.  In  this  dilemma  may  we  not  trust  to  your  good 
nature  for  assistance  ?  Send  us  any  little  scrap  in  your 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^Q/ 

portfolio — it  will  be  sure  to  answer  our  purpose  fully, 
if  it  have  the  name  of  Halleck  affixed. 
With  the  highest  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDGAR  A.  POE. 

On  the  evening  of  March  30,  1837,  a  complimenta 
ry  dinner  was  given  at  the  City  Hotel  by  the  booksellers 
of  New  York,  to  authors  and  other  distinguished  gen 
tlemen,  including  James  Kent,  Chancellor  of  the  State, 
Washington  Irving,  James  Kirke  Paulding,  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck,  Edgar  A.  Poe,  William  Cullen  Bryant,  and 
the  artists,  Colonel  Trumbull,  Henry  Inman,  Robert 
W.  Weir,  and  John  G.  Chapman.  Among  the 
speakers  on  this  pleasant  occasion  was  the  sunny  and 
genial  Geoffrey  Crayon,  who,  being  called  upon  for  a 
toast,  observed  that  he  meant  to  propose  the  health  of 
an  individual  whom  he  was  sure  all  present  would  de 
light  to  honor — of  Samuel  Rogers,  the  poet.  Irving 
remarked  that,  in  a  long  intimacy  with  Mr.  Rogers,  he 
had  ever  found  him  an  enlightened  and  liberal  friend 
of  America  and  Americans.  Possessing  great  influence 
in  the  world  of  literature  and  the  fine  arts  in  Great 
Britain,  from  his  acknowledged  soundness  of  judgment 
and  refinement  of  taste,  he  had  often  exerted  it  in  the 
kindest  and  most  gracious  manner  in  fostering,  en 
couraging,  and  bringing  into  notice  the  talents  of 
youthful  American  artists.  He  had  also  manifested,  on 


398  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

all  occasions,  the  warmest  sympathy  in  the  success  of 
American  writers,  and  the  promptest  disposition  to  ac 
knowledge  and  point  out  their  merits.  "  I  am  led  to 
these  remarks,"  continued  Irving,  "  by  a  letter  received 
yesterday  from  Mr.  Rogers,  acknowledging  the  receipt 
of  a  volume  of  Halleck's  poems  which  I  had  sent  him, 
and  expressing  his  opinion  of  their  merits."  Mr. 
Irving  then  read  an  extract  from  the  following  letter 
written  by  the  poet-banker  : 

[TO  WASHINGTON   IRVING.] 

ST.  JAMES'S  PLACE,  Feb.  20,  1837. 

A  thousand  thanks,  my  dear  Irving,  for  all  your 
letters  ;  but  more  especially  for  your  last,  not  only  for 
the  account  it  gave  me  of  yourself  and  your  doings, 
but  because  it  brought  me  a  delightful  companion,  and 
one  in  the  most  splendid  attire,  one  not  to  come  and  to 
leave  me,  in  spite  of  all  my  solicitations  to  stay  a  little 
longer,  such  as  those  you  had  before  introduced  to 
me,  but  to  remain  with  me  as  long  as  I  lived. 

With  Mr.  Halleck's  poems  I  was  already  acquainted, 
particularly  with  the  two  first  in  the  volume,  and  I  can 
not  say  how  much  I  admired  them  always.  They  are 
better  than  any  thing  we  can  .do  just  now  on  our  side 
of  the  Atlantic,  and  I  hope  he  will  not  be  idle,  but  con 
tinue  to  delight  us  as  often  as  you  have  done,  and  will, 
I  hope,  long  continue  to  do.  When  he  comes  here 
again  he  must  not  content  himself  with  looking  on  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  399 

outside  of  my  house,  as  I  am  told  he  did  once,  but 
knock  and  ring  and  ask  for  me  as  an  old  acquaintance ; 
I  should  say,  indeed,  if  I  am  here  to  be  found,  for  if  he 
or  you,  my  dear  friend,  delay  your  coming  much  longer, 
I  shall  have  no  hope  of  seeing  either  of  you  on  this 
side  of  the  grave.  You  say  you  are  building  a  house  ; 
this  looks  ill  for  us ;  but  when  you  have  roofed  it  in 
and  looked  once  or  twice  out  of  the  windows,  perhaps 
you  will  think  of  us  before  we  are  all  gone,  and  I  among 
the  first. 

Pray  remember  me  very  affectionately  to  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  McLane,  and  also  assure  Mr.  Van  Buren,  when 
you  see  him,  how  much  we  are  all  delighted  with  his 
election.  I  regret  that  I  saw  so  little  of  him  when  he 
was  here  ;  but  I  think  with  some  pride  that  he,  as  well 
as  other  Presidents,  was  once  my  guest.  I  have  little 
more  to  add  than  to  say  again,  pray  come  and  come 
soon,  or  I  shall  not  be  the  better  for  your  visit. 
Yours  ever, 

SAMUEL  ROGERS. 

I  am  delighted  with  Mr.  Duer.  He  is  just  now  at 
Paris,  but  promises  to  make  his  appearance  here  again 
before  the  May  flowers. 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  Irving's  remarks  there  was 
a  great  cry  of  "  Halleck !  Halleck!  "  but  the  diffident 
poet,  notwithstanding  DeKay's  appeal,  "  For  God's 
sake,  Fitz,  get  on  your  feet !  "  clung  steadfastly  to  his 


400 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


seat,  for  the  reason,  as  he  expressed  himself,  on  an 
other  similar  occasion,  that  when  he  attempted  to  speak 
on  his  legs,  "  the  brains  ran  to  his  heels." 

In  the  month  of  April,  1837,  there  was  organized  in 
the  city  of  New  York  an  authors'  club,  of  which  Wash 
ington  Irving  .was  chosen  president  and  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck  vice-president.  Among  its  members  were 
James  Fenimore  Cooper,  John  Pierpont,  Charles  Fenno 
Hoffman,  George  P.  Morris,  Calvin  Colton,  Theodore 
S.  Fay,  Grenville  Mellen,  J.  F.  Schroeder,  D.  D.,  John 
Inman,  James  E.  DeKay,  and  many  other  gentlemen 
well  known  in  the  literary  world.  Another  club,  at 
whose  weekly  meetings,  during  the  winter  months,  Mr. 
Halleck  was  for  many  years  a  regular  attendant,  was 
the  Bread-and-Cheese  Lunch,  organized  by  his  friend 
Fenimore  Cooper,  in  1824.  Among  the  other  prom 
inent  gentlemen  who  belonged  to  this  club  were  Gulian 
C.  Verplanck,  William  and  John  Duer,  Charles  and 
John  A.  King,  Charles  Augustus  Davis,  Philip  Hone, 
and  Dr.  John  W.  Francis.  When  Halleck  told  Dr. 
Edward  G.  L.  (who  had  a  very  slight  impediment  in  his 
speech)  that  hie  had  proposed  his  name  for  member 
ship,  and  that  he  had  been  duly  elected  a  member,  the 
poet's  young  medical  friend,  knowing  that  one  of  the 
requisites  necessary  to  become  a  member  of  the  club 
was,  that  a  person  should  be  distinguished  in  some 
walk  of  life — as  an  artist,  author,  merchant,  physician, 
savant,  or  statesman — said,  "  Well,  Halleck,  what  did 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  4OI 

you  say  I  was  famous  for  ? "  "  Stuttering,"  laughingly 
replied  the  poet. 

At  the  Bread-and-Cheese  Club  were  entertained 
for  nearly  fifteen  years,  either  at  Washington  Hall, 
the  site  of  which  is  now  occupied  by  A.  T.  Stewart's 
warehouse,  on  the  corner  of  Broadway  and  Cham 
bers  Street,  or  at  the  houses  of  the  members,  nearly 
every  distinguished  person  who  visited  New  York 
during  that  period.  Two  club  notices  now  before 
me,  addressed  to  Mr.  Halleck,  read  as  follows  :  "  The 
next  meeting  of  the  Lunch  takes  place  on  Wednesday 
next,  the  6th  of  January,  at  Mr.  Mclntyre's,  No.  5 
Broadway,  at  8  o'clock.  An  election  for  members  on 
that  evening.  You  are  particularly  requested  to  attend. 
William  Gracie,  Secretary.  January  5,  1830."  The 
other,  dated  a  year  later  and  signed  by  Charles  Augus 
tus  Davis,  is  in  these  words :  "  The  members  of  the 
Club  will  dine  together  on  Thursday,  7th  April,  at  5 
o'clock,  at  Washington  Hall,  as  a  testimony  of  regard 
for  their  distinguished  associate,  John  Duer,  Esq." 

Dr.  Francis,  in  his  "  Old  New  York,"  relates  the 
following  incident,  which  occurred  at  one  of  their  meet 
ings  :  "A  theatrical  benefit  had  been  announced  at 
the  Park,  and  '  Hamlet '  the  play.  A  subordinate  of 
the  theatre  at  a  late  hour  hurried  to  my  office  for  a 
skull;  I  was  compelled  to  loan  the  head  of  my  old 
friend,  George  Frederick  Cooke.  '  Alas,  poor  Yorick ! ' 
It  was  returned  in  the  morning ;  but  on  the  ensuing 


402  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

evening,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Cooper  Club,  the  circum 
stance  becoming  known  to  several  of  the  members,  and 
a  general  desire  being  expressed  to  investigate  phreno- 
logically  the  head  of  the  great  tragedian,  the  article 
was  again  released  from  its  privacy,  when  Daniel  Web 
ster,  Henry  Wheaton,  and  many  others,  who  enriched 
the  meeting  that  night,  applied  the  principles  of  cra- 
niological  science  to  the  interesting  specimen  before 
them ;  the  head  was  pronounced  capacious,  the  func 
tion  of  animality  amply  developed ;  the  height  of  the 
forehead  ordinary ;  the  space  between  the  orbits  of  un 
usual  breadth,  giving  proofs  of  strong  perceptive  pow 
ers  ;  the  transverse  basilar  portion  of  the  skull  of  cor 
responding  width.  Such  was  the  phrenology  of  Cooke. 
This  scientific  exploration  added  to  the  variety  and 
gratifications  of  that  memorable  meeting.  Cooper  felt 
as  a  coadjutor  to  Albinus,  and  Cooke  enacted  a  great 
part  that  night."  Halleck  was  present,  and  I  have 
heard  him  relate  the  incident  in  substantially  the  same 
words  used  by  the  venerable  and  versatile  doctor. 

In  the  following  extract  we  have  another  glimpse  of 
club-life :  "  Facile  in  address,"  says  Tuckerman,  de 
scribing  Halleck,  "  and  heartily  recognizing  the  claims 
of  others,  gentle  and  simple,  wise  and  ignorant,  the 
right  kind  of  pride  lent  its  dignity  to  one  whose  genial 
frankness,  in  convivial  or  intellectual  association,  was 
balanced  by  a  kind  of  noble  individuality,  not  inap 
propriate  to  his  political  creed.  No  man  could  be  more 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  403 

keenly  satirical  as  to  all  pseudo-aristocracy;  apropos 
to  which,  I  remember  a  piquant  illustration.  There 
was  a  select  club  many  years  ago  in  New  York,  the 
members  of  which  dined  together  at  stated  intervals  at 
the  old  City  Hotel,  on  Broadway ;  the  utmost  freedom 
of  intercourse  and  good  faith  marked  their  prandial 
converse ;  and,  one  day,  when  a  sudden  silence  fol 
lowed  the  entrance  of  the  host,  it  was  proposed  to  elect 
him  to  the  fraternity,  that  they  might  talk  freely  in  his 
presence,  which  was  frequent  and  indispensable.  He 
'  kept  a  hotel '  after  the  old  regime,  was  a  gentleman 
in  his  feelings,  an  honest  and  intelligent  fellow,  who 
prided  himself  upon  his  method  of  serving  up  roast- 
pig — in  which  viand  his  superiority  was  such,  that  the 
gentle  Elia,  had  he  ever  dined  with  the  club,  would 
have  mentioned  him  with  honor  in  the  essay  on  that 
crispy  and  succulent  dish.  The  proposition  was  op 
posed  by  only  one  individual,  a  clever  man,  who  had 
made  his  fortune  by  buying  up  all  the  bristles  at  Odessa, 
thus  securing  a  monopoly  which  enabled  him  to  vend 
the  article  to  the  brush-makers  at  an  enormous  profit. 
His  objection  to  Boniface  was  that  he  was  famous  for 
nothing  but  roasting  a  pig,  and  no  fit  associate  for  gen 
tlemen.  '  Your  aristocratic  standard  is  untenable,' 
said  Halleck,  '  for  what  essential  difference  is  there 
between  spurs  won  from  roasting  a  porker  or  by  selling 
his  bristles  ?  '  and,  amid  the  laugh  of  his  confreres^ 
'  mine  host '  was  elected." 


4C4  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Among  the  notable  people  who  visited  New  York 
in  1837  was  a  well-mannered  but  somewhat  silent 
young  man,  who  was  landed  at  Norfolk,  Virginia, 
from  a  French  frigate,  in  the  month  of  March,  and 
upon  whose  cards  were  engraved  Prince  Louis  Napo 
leon  Bonaparte.  During  his  two  months'  sojourn  in 
New  York,  Halleck  became  well  acquainted  with  him, 
meeting  "the  pretender  to  the  French  crown,"  as  he 
was  then  styled,  often  in  society,  and  having  a  seat 
next  to  the  prince  at  a  large  dinner-party  given  by 
Chancellor  Kent.  Times  change,  says  the  Latin  prov 
erb,  and  persons  change  with  them.  How  astonished 
old  George  the  Third  would  have  been  had  any  one 
shown  in  a  mirror,  like  that  of  Cornelius  Agrippa,  such 
a  vision  of  the  future  as  his  grand-daughter  being  on  a 
visit  to  the  nephew  of  the  man  whom  in  his  day  Eng 
lish  satirists  were  accustomed  to  ridicule  as  "  a  little 
Corsican  soldier !  "  Relating  to  the  poet  my  having 
seen  Victoria  leaning  on  the  arm  of  Louis  Napoleon  as 
they  entered,  with  Eugenie  and  Prince  Albert,  the 
Grand  Opera  at  Paris,  he  remarked :  "  'Tis  indeed 
strange.  I  thought  him  a  dull  fellow,  which  he  cer 
tainly  was  while  among  men,  but  sprightly  enough 
when  surrounded  by  young  ladies.  He  would  some 
times  say,  '  When  I  shall  be  at  the  head  of  affairs  in 
France,'  or  'When  I  become  emperor,'  and  I  then 
looked  upon  him  as  being  as  mad  as  a  March  hare,  or 
as  my  poor  friend  McDonald  Clarke."  To  Alfred  Pell 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  405 

he  said  of  the  prince,  that  he  was  "  a  rather  dull  man, 
of  the  order  of  Washington."  A  lady-friend  of  the 
poet  remembers  Mr.  Halleck  describing  him  u  as  a 
person  who  never  looks  you  in  the  face,  and  who  al 
ways  drops  his  eye  if  an  individual,  in  turning  sud 
denly,  detects  him  looking  at  you ;  "  adding,  on  her 
own  part,  that  "the  emperor  still  has  the  same  dis 
inclination  to  looking  any  one  square  in  the  face." 
The  poet  and  prince  exchanged  dinners,  the  latter 
dining  with  Halleck  at  Villegrand's,  while  he  was 
entertained  by  Louis  Napoleon  at  the  City  Hotel. 
When  Napoleon  became  emperor,  and  confessedly  the 
first  statesman  of  Europe,  until  his  laurels  as  such  were 
somewhat  dimmed  by  the  Prussian  Bismarck,  the  poet 
was  often  asked  for  letters  of  introduction  to  his  im 
perial  friend,  but,  with  his  characteristic  diffidence, 
declined  obtruding  himself  upon  the  notice  of  the  em 
peror,  who,  however,  to  this  day  retains  a  kindly  re 
membrance  of  his  poet-friend. 

Among  the  other  events  of  the  year  worthy  of  men 
tion  was  the  receipt  by  Halleck  of  a  copy  of  a  London 
edition  of  "  Fanny,"  published  in  1837,  the  gift  of  his 
old  bookselling  friend  Triphook;  and  the  conferring 
upon  him  by  the  Trustees  of  Columbia  College  of  the 
honorary  degree  of  Master  of  Arts. 

During  the  month  of  December  Halleck  attended  a 

grand  party  at  the  residence  of ,  in  Park  Place, 

and  in  the  course  of  the  evening  was  introduced  to  a 


406 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


lady  from  Philadelphia.  Seating  themselves,  the  poet 
was  requested  by  his  companion,  who  was  a  stranger, 
to  inform  her  who  were  in  the  company,  and  so,  as 
they  passed,  Mr.  Halleck  would  say,  "  That  lady  with 

the  diamonds  is  a  daughter  of ,  who  failed  last 

winter ;  "  another  lady  in  a  superb  dress,  with  magnifi 
cent  pearls  to  match,  was  "the  wife  of ,  a  bank 
rupt;  "  a  third,  elegantly  dressed,  was  "  Mrs. , 

whose  husband  don't  pay  his  notes,"  and  so  he  ran 
through  the  whole  gorgeously-attired  company,  until 
the  lady  inquired  if  they  were  all  wives  and  daughters 
of  bankrupts,  and  received  for  an  answer,  "  Fully 
three-fourths  of  them."  This  occurrence,  be  it  remem 
bered,  was  soon  after  the  greatest  financial  crisis  that 
ever  swept  over  this  country. 

When  the  venerable  Venetian  poet,  Lorenzo  Da- 
ponte,  died,  August  20,  1838,  at  the  age  of  ninety, 
and  was  buried  in  the  Catholic  cemetery  in  Second 
Avenue,  after  the  "Miserere"  had  been  magnificently 
performed  at  the  Cathedral,  among  the  many  attached 
friends  who  followed  the  nonogenarian  to  the  grave 
was  his  former  pupil,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  Drs.  Mc- 
Nevin  and  Francis,  G.  C.  Verplanck,  and  Maroncelli, 
whom  the  poet  described  to  me  as  being  "short  and 
slight ;  spoke  hurriedly,  with  excessive  gesticulation ; 
and  was  a  generous  and  chivalric  gentleman,  with  an 
unbounded  love  for  his  native  land." 

In  the  month  of  November,  1838,  Mr.  Halleck  wrote 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  407 

the  following  translation   from  the  French  of  Victor 
Hugo,  in  the  album  of  his  friend  Mrs.  J.  J.  Roosevelt : 

Moorland  and  meadow  slumber, 

In  deepest  darkness  now, 
But  the  sunrise  hues  of  wakened  day 

Smile  on  that  mountain's  brow. 

And,  when  eve's  mists  are  shrouding 

Moorland  and  meadow  fast, 
That  mountain  greets  day's  sunset  light, 

Her  loveliest  and  her  last. 

And  thus  the  God-taught  minstrel, 

Above  a  land  untaught, 
Smiles  lonely  in  the  smiles  of  heaven 

From  his  hill-tops  of  thought. 

Three  months  later  Mr.  Halleck  made  the  much- 
admired  translation  from  the  German  of  Goethe,  which 
appears  in  the  later  editions  of  his  poems,  beginning — 

"  Again  ye  come,  again  ye  throng  around  me, 
Dim,  shadowy  beings  of  my  boyhood's  dream!  " 

The  following  lines  were  addressed  to  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck  in  the  month  of  March,  1839,  by  his  kinsman, 
Barnabas  Hallock,  of  Brooklyn  : 

Thou  of  the  lute  and  lay, 
Whose  notes  so  sweetly  play 


408  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Round  "Amwick's"  lordly  castle,  o'er  the  sea; 
Why  sleeps  thy  harp  in  silence — why  no  more 

From  sweet  "  Weehawken's  "  shore 
Floats  thy  song  on  the  waters,  light  and  free  ? 

Is  there  no  voice  of  fame, 

No  loved  or  lovely  name, 
To  wake  its  slumbering  melody  again  ? 
Amid  Columbia's  valleys,  no  bright  spell 

To  make  its  numbers  swell, 
And  move  the  heart  like  music  o'er  the  main  ? 

Thou  once  couldst  freely  fling 
Thy  hand  o'er  chord  and  string 

To  the  poet's  grave,  'mid  Caledonia's  hills  ; 

In  thy  own  land  of  beauty,  are  there  none, 
No  solitary  one, 

That  to  thy  heart  a  kindred  music  thrills  ? 

"  Bozzaris'  "  battle-shout 
Like  a  trumpet- voice  rings  out, 
And  proudly  swells  thy  requiem  o'er  his  grave  : 
Has  Columbia  no  heroes — lives  no  name 

In  her  patriot-wreath  of  fame 
Can  claim  a  poet's  tribute  for  the  brave  ? 

Oh,  say  not  thou  art  old, 

That  thy  heart  is  waxing  cold, 
The  fire  upon  its  altar  burning  low ; 
Time  hath  no  power  to  quench  it — music  still, 

Responsive  to  thy  will, 
Would  like  thy  native  rivers  brightly  Mow. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLE CK.  409 

Then  sweep  thy  lyre  again, 

While  many  a  tuneful  strain 
Flows  forth  to  greet  the  beautiful  and  brave  : 
Let  its  melody  awaken,  as  of  yore, 

Ere  life's  pilgrimage  is  o'er, 
And  the  cypress  casts  its  shadow  on  thy  grave. 

[TO    MISS   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  April  13,  1839. 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  :  I  have  entered  into  an  agree 
ment  with  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers,  of  this  city,  for 
the  publication  of  some  of  my  writings,  in  two  parts. 
First,  "  Fanny  and  other  Poems;"  second,  "  Poems 
by  Fitz-Greene  Halleck."  They  are  to  print  imme 
diately  fifteen  hundred  copies  of  each,  and  give  me 
their  note  at  six  months  from  the  completion  of  the 
printing,  for  my  proportion,  which  is  to  be  twenty-five 
cents  per  copy.  I  retain  the  copyright  in  my  own 
possession,  but  they  are  to  be  allowed  to  print  as  many 
editions  hereafter  as  the  market  may  require,  on  the 
same  terms.  I  write  this,  that,  in  case  of  my  death, 
you  may  claim  from  them  the  fulfilment  of  the  agree 
ment. 

Yours  affectionately, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

"  Fanny,  and  other  Poems,"  appeared  in  the  early 
autumn,  and,  for  the  first  time,  with  the  author's  name 
on  the  title-page,     The  "  Poems  "  were  published  in 
18 


4io 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


the  following  spring.  "  Fanny  "  had  long  been  out  of 
print,  and  manuscript  copies  were  made  and  sold  at 
from  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  each.  One  of  these  may  be 
seen  at  the  Mercantile  Library  of  New  York.  At  the 
foot  of  the  title-page,  in  lieu  of  a  publisher's  name, 
appear  these  words  :  "  Copied  by  Charles  C.  Spencer, 
in  1834."  Harpers'  beautifully-printed  I2mo  volumes 
of  Halleck's  poems  were  eagerly  sought  for,  and  several 
editions  were  immediately  exhausted.  In  noticing  these 
books,  the  late  Horace  Binney  Wallace  said  :  "  Har 
pers'  editions  of  Halleck's  poems  are,  in  respect  to  ap 
pearance,  worthy  of  the  poet,  and  creditable  to  the 
gentlemen  from  whose  press  they  proceed.  The  grati 
fication  of  the  senses  has  so  much  to  do  with  even  the 
mental  perception  of  the  beauties  of  works  of  elegant 
taste,  that  a  poet  ought  to  consider  the  style  of  publi 
cation  of  his  works  part  of  the  works  themselves.  A 
poem  ill  printed  is  like  an  overture  badly  played.  The 
finest  performance  cannot  redeem  a  musical  composi 
tion  essentially  worthless ;  but  a  slovenly  execution 
may  destroy  the  effect  of  the  noblest  harmonies  that 
ever  flowed  from  the  genius  of  a  composer. " 

During  the  year  1839  Mr.  Halleck  made  a  most 
admirable  selection  from  the  British  poets,  which 
was  published  by  Harper  &  Brothers,  in  two  i8mo 
volumes,  the  following  year.  They  at  the  same  time 
brought  out  a  similar  collection  from  the  American 
poets,  edited  by  William  Cullen  Bryant.  These  works 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^n 

form  a  part  of  the  well-known   Family  Library  Se 
ries. 

William  Reynolds  was  an  Englishman  who  came 
from  Staffordshire  to  New  York  in  1813,  and,  after  the 
lapse  of  a  number  of  years,  opened  an  ale-house  in 
Thames  Street,  which  soon  became  a  place  of  resort  for 
many  prominent  merchants  and  politicians.  Halleck 
frequented  his  place  for  a  number  of  years,  and  Rey 
nolds,  being  an  eccentric  character,  he  formed  a  friend 
ship  for  the  gruff  Englishman  and  fierce  Democrat, 
which  not  only  continued  until  1837,  when  Reynolds 
gave  up  his  business,  having  acquired  a  competency, 
and  retired  with  his  family  to  Fort  Lee,  but  endured 
through  life.  For  many  years  Halleck  was  a  constant 
and  regular  visitor,  and,  even  after  the  poet  retired  to 
Guilford,  he  would,  on  coming  to  New  York,  now 
and  then  run  up  to  Fort  Lee  to  see  his  old  friends 
and  the  deeply-cherished  scenes.  Halleck's  visits  were 
always  looked  forward  to  with  the  greatest  pleasure, 
and  were  considered  by  Mr.  Reynolds  and  his  family 
as  an  important  event.  The  poet's  favorite  resort  was 
to  a  high  bluff  commanding  a  noble  prospect  of  the 
city  and  bay  of  New  York,  as  well  as  of  Manhattan 
Island,  the  East  River,  and  Long-Island  Sound.  To 
this  spot,  which  he  once  described  to  the  writer  as  his 
"  country-seat  at  Fort  Lee,"  and  to  Flat  Rock,  an 
other  commanding  height,  he  almost  always  went, 
accompanied  by  the  young  ladies,  with  whom  he  would 


412  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

also  make  excursions  in  the  neighborhood  in  quest  of 
other  scenes  of  beauty  and  interest.  The  poet's  friend, 
Commodore  George  C.  DeKay,  a  younger  brother  of 
James,  and  the  son-in-law  of  Joseph  Rodman  Drake, 
lived  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Lee,  and  to  his  cottage  at 
Bull's  Ferry  Mr.  Halleck  often  went  to  dine  during  his 
excursions  to  Fort  Lee. 

Among  the  many  anecdotes  told  of  Reynolds,  whose 
death  preceded  the  poet's  but  by  a  few  months,  was 
one  of  his  throwing  his  hat  overboard  upon  learning, 
from  the  pilot  who  boarded  the  vessel  on  which  he 
was  returning  from  a  visit  to  England,  that  Andrew 
Jackson  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States, 
which  circumstance,  combined  with  his  noisy  ebulli 
tions  of  delight,  so  exasperated  the  captain  of  the  ves 
sel,  who  happened  to  be  a  furious  opponent  of  "  Old 
Hickory,"  that  he  threatened  to  throw  him  overboard 
after  his  hat  if  he  did  not  make  less  noise.  -Reynolds 
had  an  especial  dislike,  while  he  was  in  business,  to 
having  persons  touch  his  fire  either  by  kicking  the 
coals  with  their  boots  or  stirring  it  up  with  the  poker, 
and  used  to  say:  "  Mr.  Halleck  is  the  only  gentleman 
who  comes  to  my  house.  He  never  interferes  with  my 
fire."  His  little  ale-house  stood  in  the  rear  of  the 
immense  edifice  known  as  the  City  Hotel.  "  I'm 
going  to  buy  that  house,"  said  the  grumbling  English 
man  one  cloudy  day  to  Halleck,  "  and  tear  it  down. 
It  interferes  with  my  light." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  4^3 

It  was  soon  after  he  found  his  way  to  the  ale-house 
in  Thames  Street,  where  he  was  taken  by  Langstaff, 
that  the  poet  first  saw  "  Reynolds's  pretty  daughter  " 
Eliza,  and,  as  it  was  not  a  place  in  which  he  expected 
to  see  such  a  lovely  vision,  it  affected  the  impressive 
poet  very  much,  as  did  the  sight  of  a  rosy-cheeked 
English  girl  whom  he  met  in  crossing  the  Alps,  which 
was  not  as  common  an  occurrence  among  ladies  forty- 
five  years  ago  as  at  the  present  day.  On  his  next 
visit  to  Reynolds's  he  again  saw  her  and  made  some 
commonplace  remark,  in  answering  which  she  called 
him  by  name.  "  Do  you  know  me  ?  "  said  the  poet, 
with  surprise.  "  Oh  yes,  certainly,  I  do,"  said  the 
young  blue-eyed  beauty;  "you  are  Mr.  Halleck,  the 
poet."  From  that  hour  they  were  friends,  and  when 
many,  many  long  years  had  passed  away,  the  poet 
confessed  to  the  fair  Eliza  that  few  things  had  gratified 
him  more  than  her  answer  on  that  occasion.  Although 
in  a  very  different  walk  of  life  from  the  high  society  in 
which  Mr.  Halleck  moved,  he  often  took  her  and  her 
sister  Mary  to  the  theatre  and  to  other  places  of  amuse 
ment,  where  they  never  failed  to  be  objects  of  curiosity 
and  interest  to  the  poet's  more  aristocratic  friends  and 
acquaintances.  While  the  poet  admired  the  beauty  of 
the  elder,  he  was  also  charmed  with  the  vivacity  and  the 
merry,  cheerful,  and  contagious  laugh  of  the  younger 
sister.  One  of  her  peculiarities  was  an  inability  to  ride 
in  a  sleigh  without  becoming  sick,  and  so  the  poet  and 


4!4  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Miss  Mary  would,  on  the  occasion  of  her  visits  to  New 
York  in  midwinter,  be  sometimes  seen  riding  in  a  car 
riage,  while  the  rest  of  the  New- York  world  were 

enjoying  the  sleighing.  Miss  Van  S ,  who  was  a 

summer  visitor  at  the  Mr.  Reynolds's  cottage,  tells  me 
that  Mr.  Halleck  always  came  there  "  with  his  pockets 
filled  with  books  and  papers  for  Mr.  Reynolds  and  his 
daughters,  with  peanuts  (of  which  I  was  very  fond)  and 
bonbons  for  me,  and  cake  and  ribbons  for  Veto." 

Soon  after  negro  minstrelsy  was  introduced  in  New 
York,  the  poet  invited  Miss  Reynolds,  who  was  then 
residing  at  Fort  Lee,  to  accompany  him  to  one  of  their 
entertainments.  At  the  door  they  happened  to  meet 
Washington  Irving,  who  joined  them,  and,  seating 
himself  next  to  the  young  lady,  he  remarked,  "  How 
fortunate  we  country  people  are,  Miss  Reynolds,  in 
having  a  city  gentleman  like  Mr.  Halleck  to  explain 
things  to  us  !  " 

The  lady  remembers  going  with  Mr.  Halleck  to  the 
National  Academy  of  Design,  to  attend  one  of  their 
annual  exhibitions,  and  recalls  the  pride  with  which  the 
poet  pointed  out  the  portrait  of  a  remarkably  hand 
some  man  as  an  Elliot  and  a  kinsman  of  his  own,  and 
the  same  gentleman  of  whom  he  said  to  the  Earl  of  St. 
Germans  (who  is  an  Elliot),  when  he  was  in  this  coun 
try,  "My  lord,  you  see  the  stock  does  not  degenerate 
by  being  transplanted  to  the  United  States."  On  an 
other  occasion  she  went  with  Mr.  Halleck  to  see  a  fine 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  4^5 

full-length  portrait  of  Pauline  Bonaparte,  sent  by  her 
as  a  present  to  one  of  the  Waterloo  generals,  she 
having  no  money  to  give  her  impecunious  friend  and 
her  brother's  devoted  adherent.  Of  the  emperor's 
beautiful  sister  the  poet  once  told  this  story  to  Miss 
Reynolds  :  While  presiding  at  the  Tuileries,  there 
came  to  Paris  a  Russian  princess,  the  fame  of  whose 
beauty  had  preceded  her,  and  great  was  the  excitement 
in  court  circles  over  the  respective  claims  of  the  two 
noted  beauties  for  the  precedence.  As  the  princess, 
passed  Pauline,  after  being  presented,  she  said  audibly, 
"  What  ears  !  "  It  was  the  only  defect  in  the  Russian, 
and  with  her  eagle  eye  Pauline  instantly  discovered  it. 
The  comment  upon  her  asinine  attribute  clung  to  her, 
and  her  highness  soon  after  returned  to  St.  Petersburgh. 

Of  the  old  soldier  to  whom  Pauline  sent  her  por 
trait,  and  with  whom  he  was  well  acquainted,  Halleck 
had  many  anecdotes  to  tell  the  young  ladies,  as  he 
had  of  a  large  number  of  the  sabreurs  who  were  driven 
from  France  to  the  United  States  by  the  downfall  of 
their  chief,  and  the  return  of  the  Bourbons. 

Halleck  was  extremely  fond  of  dogs,  although  I 
have  no  information  that  he  ever  owned  one.  In  his 
frequent  visits  to  his  friends  at  Fort  Lee,  he  never  failed 
to  carry  some  cake  to  Veto,  a  small  dcg,  so  named  by 
his  owner  in  the  days  of  Jackson's  presidency.  In  ad 
dition  to  the  cake,  the  poet  was  also  in  the  habit  of 
carrying  with  him  bright-colored  ribbons  to  tie  around 


416 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


Veto's  neck,  his  possession  of  which  was  viewed  with 
no  little  envy  by  some  of  the  rustic  beauties  of  the 
neighborhood.  Arriving  on  his  usual  weekly  visit  with 
the  accustomed  stock  of  cake  and  ribbons,  he  was  visi 
bly  affected  when  informed  of  the  sudden  death  of  his 
little  favorite.  My  informant  added  :  "  We  got  no  fun 
from  Mr.  Halleck  during  that  visit."  He  afterward 
wrote  some  lines  on  poor  little  Veto,  but  I  have  been 
unable  to  recover  them. 

"  Many  years  ago,"  writes  Richard  E.  Mount,  an 
occasional  companion  of  the  poet  in  his  hours  of  leisure, 
"  on  the  corner  of  Thames  and  Temple  Streets,  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  stood  an  ancient  wooden  ale-house — 
the  ale  is  yet  there,  but  not  the  old  house — kept  by  one 
Reynolds,  an  oddity  in  character  and  manners.  He 
had  been  a  grave-digger  in  the  old  Trinity  yard  oppo 
site,  and  had  married  the  daughter  of  the  former  pro 
prietor,  who  was  the  church  sexton.  This  ale-house 
was  in  a  secluded,  quiet  spot,  and  may  have  been  like 
the  '  Mitre '  of  Ben  Jonson  and  Herrick.  Halleck  never 
.  forgot  his  landlord  in  his  retirement,  but  on  every 
summer's  Sunday  went  to  see  his  '  Mug '  on  the  Wee- 
hawken  Hills,  taking  the  steamboat  at  the  foot  of 
Spring  Street.  Many  a  time  have  I  met  him  on  the 
boat,  full  of  smiles  and  glee,  joking  and  chattering  and 
enjoying."  * 

During  the  summer  months,  the  poet  always  went 

1  Evart  A.  Duyckinck,  in  Putnam's  Magazine, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  4^7 

by  boat  to  Fort  Lee,  but  in  winter  would  cross  over  to 
Hoboken  and  take  a  carriage.  On  one  occasion,  he 
was  accosted  by  a  stranger,  who  called  him  by  name, 
and  proposed  that,  as  he  was  also  going  to  Fort  Lee, 
they  should  take  a  single  horse  and  carriage  together, 
which  would  save  expense.  Stating,  in  answer  to  Mr. 
Halleck's  inquiry,  that  he  was  an  expert  driver,  they 
started ;  and,  going  down  Bull's  Ferry  Hill,  the  horse 
ran  away,  the  poet  was  thrown  out  headlong,  injuring 
himself  severely,  and  spraining  his  wrist.  He,  how 
ever,  managed  to  reach  Fort  Lee,  and  never  again 
trusted  himself  in  a  carriage  with  a  stranger  to  drive. 
The  poet's  visits  were  generally  made  alone,  but  he 
was  occasionally  accompanied  by  a  friend,  Washington 
Irving  and  William  Cullen  Bryant  being  among  the 
remembered  visitors  who  honored  Reynolds's  pretty 
cottage  with  their  presence. 

When  the  eldest  sister  was  married  to  Dr.  Day,  in 
1840,  the  poet  sent  her  a  beautiful  Oxford  Bible,  with 
the  following  inscription  :  "A  present,  on  her  mar 
riage,  from  one  who  for  years  has  known  her  worth, 
and  been  grateful  for  her  friendship.  As  a  daughter 
and  a  sister,  she  has  merited  all  love  and  honor.  As 
a  wife  and  a  mother,  may  her  life  be  long  and  happy." 
When  the  younger  sister,  Mary,  was  married  to  Adrian 
H.  Dunning,  by  Bishop  Wainwright,  in  1852,  in  St. 
John's  Church,  New  York,  Mr.  Halleck  came  from 
Guilford  to  give  away  the  bride. 
18* 


4i 8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

The  following  letters  were  addressed  to  various 
members  of  Mr.  Reynolds's  family,  and  contain  nu 
merous  allusions  to  the  "  ancient  and  honorable  cir 
cle,"  and  to  the  happy  days  spent  with  them  amid  the 
beautiful  surroundings  of  their  happy  home  at  Fort 
Lee. 

[TO  ADRIAN  H.   DUNNING.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Dec.  13,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  happy  to  learn  from  your 
kind  letter  that  you  are  all  well  and  wealthy,  and  have 
not,  in  your  prosperity,  forgotten  your  old  friendships. 
The  "  olive-branches  round  about  your  table,"  to 
quote  Scriptural  language,  seem  to  be  increasing  in 
number  in  a  most  exemplary  manner.  You  do  not  tell 
me  their  names,  but  their  general  name  will  soon  be 
"  Legion."  Please  present  to  their  excellent  mother 
my  congratulations  and  best  good  wishes,  and  tell  her 
that,  when  in  New  York  two  weeks  since,  I  declined 
Mr.  Duer's  invitation  to  drive  with  him  from  Highwood 
(Hoboken)  to  Fort  Lee  on  the  new  road  now  completed 
along  the  banks  of  the  river,  because  I  could  not  assist 
in  desecrating,  in  such  a  manner,  my  old  romantic 
walks.  If  our  dear  old  and  lamented  favorite  Veto 
were  alive,  how  he  and  I  would  bark  together  at  such 
barbarity !  I  was  at  Fort  Lee  for  a  few  hours  in  Octo 
ber,  and  found  "  our  ancient  and  honorable  circle  "  all 
much  as  usual.  The  exquisite  beauty  of  the  place, 
which  so  long  since  won  my  heart,  is  still  preserved  in 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^Q 

most  respects,  and  I  hope  that,  in  spite  of  the  threatened 
improvements,  its  beauty  will  outlast  mine.  Fort  Lee 
was,  by  the  way,  recently  honored  by  the  presence  of 
Lola  Montez  (the  Countess  of  Landsfeldt) — only  think 
how  much  Mary  Ann  has  lost  by  missing  the  acquaint 
ance  of  a  real  live  countess !  She  was  the  guest  of  the 
two  parsons  on  the  hill,  alternately,  share  and  share 
alike,  as  the  lawyers  say,  and  was,  moreover,  the  belle 
of  the  village. 

I  presume  that  the  Mr.  McCauley  you  mention  is 
the  gentleman  who  was  with  me  some  (I  forget  how 
many)  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  babe  in  arms,  in  Wall 
Street.  If  so,  please  beg  him  to  accept  my  kindest  re 
membrances,  and  say  that  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  re 
ceive  a  letter  from  him,  informing  me  of  his  welfare,  to 
which  he  may  rely  upon  an  answer,  granting  every 
request  he  may  make.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  of  his 
success  in  life.  He  is  an  Irishman,  and  deserves  success. 

So  you  are  going  farther  west !  Do  you  mean  to 
stop  at  the  Pacific  Ocean  ?  or  embark  upon  it  and  sail 
on  ?  Wherever  you  go,  on  sea  or  land,  may  happiness 
attend  you  and  yours  ! 

[TO  THE  SAME.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Nov.  19,  1859. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  delayed  from  day  to  day  an 
swering  your  last  letter,  in  the  hope  of  finding,  by  a 
previous  visit  to  New  York,  subjects  of  a  nature  more 


420  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

interesting  to  you  than  my  own  monotonous  and  un 
eventful  life  could  supply.  I  have  now  been  and  re 
turned  without  seeing  Fort  Lee  except  from  the  Bloom- 
ingdale  side  of  the  river,  from  whence  I  satisfied  my 
self  that  so  vividly  and  so  indelibly  were  its  scenes  of 
beauty  and  its  old  associations  impressed  upon  my 
memory  as  to  render  a  nearer  view  of  it  unnecessary  for 
enjoyment,  and  resolved  not  to  risk  what  I  have  been 
long  fearing,  the  sight  of  some  villanous  alteration, 
miscalled  Improvement,  which  might  sadden  all  my  fu 
ture  recollections  of  so  many  of  my  pleasantest  hours 
and  pleasantest  acquaintances.  I  learned,  however^ 
from  good  city  authority,  that  all  were  well  there  as 
usual,  and  I  hope  that  your  advices  from  them  of  a 
later  date  are  equally  cheering. 

I  am  highly  flattered  by  the  so  kindly  expressed  in 
tention  of  yourself  and  your  good  lady  to  name  one  of 
your  coming  boys  after  me,  but  I  pray  you  not  to  let 
the  one  who  is  to  do  me  so  much  honor  be  born  until 
I  am  gone,  in  order  that  the  world's  tree  may  be  grate 
ful  to  you  for  giving  it,  in  exchange  for  a  shook-off 
wintry  leaf,  a  bud  in  promising  spring  beauty. 

Before  this  letter  reaches  you,  I  trust  you  will  have 
returned  from  your  "  Farther  Western  prospecting  " 
journey,  and  will  have  found  some  nearer,  and  there 
fore  dearer  home.  Your  motive  for  changing  your 
residence  seems  to  be  much  like  Tom  Moore's  motive 
for  changing  his  sweethearts  : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  42 1 

"  'Tis  not  that  I  expect  to  find 

A  more  devoted,  kind,  or  true  one, 
With  rosier  cheek  or  sweeter  mind — 
Enough  for  me,  if  she's  a  new  one  !  " 

I  trust  that  I  need  not  add  that,  wherever  you  go,  I  wish 
you  happiness,  and  that  I  wish  often  to  hear  from  you. 
Should  you  be  still  in  Mr.  McCauley's  neighbor 
hood,  please  assure  him  of  my  anxiety  to  receive  an 
other  letter  informing  me  of  his  welfare,  and  telling  me 
in  what  manner  I  can  do  him  service. 

[TO  MISS  FANNY  WAKE.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Feb.  21,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  Miss  WAKE  :  I  hope  that  you  will  cease 
to  reproach  me  for  my  long  delay  in  answering  your 
letter,  when  you  learn  that  there  is  no  photographer 
here  in  my  neighborhood  from  whom  I  could  obtain 
my  carte  de  visite  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to 
prize  so  highly.  I  have,  therefore,  been  compelled  to 
send  to  New  York  for  the  enclosed,  taken  some  two 
years  ago,  and  so  wait  impatiently  until  to-day  for  it. 
It  now  presents  itself  most  diffidently  for  your  gracious 
acceptance  with  its  hat  in  its  hand,  and  will,  I  hope, 
with  its  very  best  bow  express,  in  unison  with  my  own, 
its  grateful  acknowledgments  of  the  courtesy  of  your 
wish  to  possess  it  as  a  memorial  of  me.  It  is  not  by  a 
great  deal  so  handsome  (begging  its  pardon)  as  I  am 
at  present,  for,  in  order  to  be  in  the  fashion.  I  have 


422  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

allowed  my  beard  to  grow  long ;  and,  to  avoid  being 
accused  from  my  youthful  appearance  of  being  under 
forty-five  and  liable  to  be  drafted  in  the  army,  I  keep  it 
nicely  whitewashed,  so  that  were  you  to  meet  me  you 
would  mistake  me  for  my  good  friend  Mr.  Reynolds's 
friend  Bryant  the  poet,  and  would  esteem  and  respect 
me  accordingly. 

It  is  now  a  long  time  since  I  have  been  seen  at 
Fort  Lee,  but  I  am  in  all  my  moments  of  real  en 
joyment  invisibly  there  in  mind  and  in  heart,  living 
over  its  past  pleasantness,  and  revelling  in  the  memory 
of  its  beautiful  scenery  and  the  associations  so  delight 
fully  blended  with  it.  Let  me  hope,  I  pray  you,  that 
while  I  live  you  will  not  allow  a  person  whom  I  refrain 
from  naming  (the  same  person  who  entered  of  old  the 
only  Paradise  on  earth  to  be  compared  to  Fort  Lee,  in 
the  shape  of  a  rattlesnake,  and  played  the  very  devil 
there),  to  come  in  the  shape  of  a  railroad  locomotive, 
screaming  his  way  through  your  garden  up  to  a  crystal 
palace  on  the  top  of  the  Palisade,  at  the  rate  of  forty 
miles  an  hour. 

I  shall  be  happy  to  know  by  a  letter  from  you  that 
this  has  reached  you,  and  relieved  me  from  any  im 
puted  neglect;  and  I  beg  you  to  present  to  all  the 
members  of  your  family,  whether  in  New  York  or  at 
Fort  Lee,  and  wherever  Mrs.  Day  and  Mrs.  Dunning 
may  be,  the  assurance  of  my  ever-continued  and  grate 
ful  recollections  of  their  bounteous  hospitality  and 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  423 

many  kindnesses  toward  me  for  so  many  pleasant  years, 
and  of  my  best  good  wishes  for  their  continued  welfare. 
I  shall  be  also  greatly  pleased  to  learn  your  latest 
tidings  from  Mrs.  Dunning,  fearing,  as  I  do,  that  her 
living  so  near  the  seat  of  war  at  this  moment  must  be 
the  cause  of  much  annoyance  to  her  and  hers. 

[TO   MISS  ANNA  B.    DAY.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  March  4,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  Miss  DAY:  I  take  great  pleasure  in 
granting  the  request  so  courteously  conveyed  to  me  in 
your  note  of  the  27th  instant,  and  am  delighted  to  find 
that  the  "  willingness  to  be  acquainted  with  me  "  of  the 
father  and  mother  of  twenty  years  ago  has  been  in 
herited  by  the  daughter  of  to-day,  making  me  trebly 
proud  and  grateful. 

I  hope  the  father  and  mother,  in  accepting  my 
present  remembrance  of  them,  will,  on  looking  at  the 
enclosed,  console  me  by  telling  you  that  my  style  of 
beauty  does  not  appear  to  advantage  in  a  photograph. 
For  my  own  part,  I  think  that  the  sun,  since  he  com 
menced  taking  likenesses  for  a  living,  has  been  more 
successful  in  his  hats  and  great-coats  than  in  the  "hu 
man  face  divine." 

Please  present  my  best  compliments  to  my  fair  friend 
Miss  Van  Sickle,  and  assure  her  that  I  have  not  forgot 
ten  my  promise  to  be  ready  at  any  moment  to  be  near  her 
at  the  altar  for  the  pleasant  purpose  of  giving  her  away. 


424  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Trusting  that  you  will  kindly  let  me  know  in  your 
very  pretty  handwriting  that  -this  letter  has  reached 
you,  I  am,  dear  lady,  most  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

[TO   MISS  MARIA  VAN  SICKLE.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  June  23,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  Miss  VAN  SICKLE:  I  am  made  quite 
proud  by  your  beautiful  letter,  expressing,  as  it  does, 
alike  your  courteous  remembrance  of  me  and  your  will 
ingness  to  give  that  remembrance  longer  life  by  pos 
sessing  (to  be  looked  at  now  and  then)  my  "graven 
image."  In  asking  your  acceptance  of  the  enclosed, 
in  preference  to  a  more  modern  "carte  de  visite,"  I 
gratify  a  desire  that  you  should  continue  to  see  me 
rather  as  I  appeared  in  the  delightful  days  of  old,  and 
when  you  were  one  of  the  delightful  companions  who 
so  often  and  so  kindly  welcomed  me  to  our  darling 
Fort  Lee,  than  as  I  now  appear  in  portraits  by  that 
new-fashioned  painter,  the  sun,  who,  because  he  is  as 
old  as  the  creation,  takes  pleasure  in  making  those  who 
are  silly  enough  to  sit  to  him  look  as  old  as  himself. 

I  deeply  regret  that  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  share 
with  you  the  enjoyment  of  a  visit  to  Fort  Lee  and  to 
the  neighborhood  during  this  their  scenery's  loveliest 
month.  Please  present  my  truest  and  best  regards  to 
all  our  cherished  acquaintances  there,  and  may  you 
find  our  favorite  paradise  as  much  resembling  that  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  435 

Eve  and  Adam  as  ever,  and  its  apple-orchards  better 
watched  than  theirs,  so  that  there  be  no  "  tete-a-tetes" 
in  them  between  young  ladies  and  the  devil ! 

I  am  as  impatient  as  youself  to  be  present  at  the 
giving  away  of  the  warm  heart  and  willing  hand  of  the 
maiden  you  mention,  and  as  anxious  as  yourself,  for 
her  sake,  to  entrap  the  "  millionnaire ;  "  but  here  in 
the  country  such  birds  are  scarce  and  shy.  The  war 
contracts,  however,  must  have  set  a  number  of  them 
flying  in  our  cities,  and,  when  I  am  again  in  New 
York,  I  will  spread  my  net  over  a  brace  of  them  and 
have  them  bagged  to  her  address.  She  can  choose  the 
eldest  first,  and  reserve  the  youngest  for  future  choosing. 

Pray,  do  you  ever  write  to  our  dearly-loved  Mary 
Ann  ?  If  you  do,  please  add  to  your  own  good  wishes 
for  her  welfare  a  thousand  from  me. 

I  shall  be  happy  to  learn  from  you  that  the  enclosed 
has  reached  you,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  beg  you  to 
believe  me  very  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


CHAPTER    VII. 
1841-1847. 

A  Poet's  Trials.— His  Generosity.— Letter  from  Edgar  A.  Poe.— A  Poetical 
Epistle. — Charles  Dickens  in  New  York.— Notes  from  the  Novelist— 
Authors'  Compensation. — "The  winds  of  March  are  humming." — Let 
ter  from  Scotland.— Notice  of  Halleck.— Mrs.  C.  M.  Kirkland.— Death 
of  Henry  Inman.— The  Poet's  Haunts.— His  Conversation.— Tribute  to 
Halleck.— Reminiscences  of  the  Poet— Valentines.— Halleck  on  Com 
pliments. 

[ISTINCTION,"  said  the  poet,  as  we  sat  to 
gether  one  evening  at  Guilford,  "has  its 
penalties  as  well  as  its  privileges,  its  pains  as  well  as 
its  pleasures.  For  many  years  I  have  been  persecuted 
by  autograph-hunters,  those  '  mosquitoes  of  literature,' 
as  Irving  called  them,  whose  requests  I  should  comply 
with  less  reluctantly  if  they  were  more  merciful  on  my 
stock  of  stamps.  In  addition  to  modest  appeals  from 
perfect  strangers  for  manuscript  copies  of  '  Marco 
Bozzaris,'  '  Alnwick  Castle,'  or  the  lines  on  Dr.  Drake, 
with  my  name  attached,  and  occasional  equally  cool  re 
quests  that  I  will  send  the  writer  a  copy  of  my  poems, 
with  my  '  signature  written  in  the  book,'  I  receive 
innumerable  applications  for  my  autograph ;  requests 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  427 

for  those  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  my  friend  Joseph  Rod 
man  Drake,  or  any  other  distinguished  person  with 
whom  I  may  have  had  correspondence.  Then,  I  have 
frequent  appeals  for  letters  to  hard-hearted  editors, 
asking  them  to  give  immediate  and  impartial  examina 
tion  to  the  contributions  offered  by  the  applicant,  with 
sad  and  sorrowful  descriptions  of  the  cold,  uncivil,  and 
disheartening  manner  in  which  their  writings  were  re 
turned  to  them,  as  they  believed,  unexamined ;  requests 
to  have  manuscripts  printed  under  my  supervision,  I 
correcting  the  proof,  and  also  making  any  changes 
that  '  my  superior  literary  abilities  would  suggest '  as 
an  improvement ;  illegible  manuscripts  are  consigned 
to  me,  with  requests  that  I  will  give  my  '  opinion  of 
the  poem,  and  such  counsel  as  the  tone  and  character 
of  the  piece  will  justify ;  '  a  Bohemian  begs  the  loan 
of  ten  dollars,  to  be  returned  '  next  week ; '  a  distin 
guished  poet  encloses  his  note  at  three  months,  with  a 
request  for  the  sum  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  that 
length  of  time,  in  order  that  '  a  magazine,  which  he 
has  set  afloat,  may  not  founder ;  '  and  persons  wanting 
loans  of  money,  as  well  as  those  who  were  begging 
for  themselves  or  others,  would  graciously  express 
their  willingness  to  accept  F.  G.  H.'s  influence  with 
Mr.  Astor  to  advance  their  object.  Then  there  were 
showered  upon  me,  by  litterateurs  and  penny-a-liners, 
applications  for  my  powerful  aid  in  obtaining  for  them 
the  position  of  librarian  or  assistant  librarian  in  the 


428  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Astor  Library.  A  fellow  who  neither  spells  correctly 
nor  writes  grammatically  sends  me  a  huge  manuscript, 
accompanied  by  a  note,  in  which  he  expresses  the  hope 
that  '  Mr.  Halleck  will  kindly  correct  the  same,  as  it  is 
the  author's  first  attempt  at  a  novel ; '  appeals  from 
lecture  committees  in  as  many  as  sixteen  States,  re 
questing  that  I  should  exhibit  myself  to  a  highly 
respectable  audience  for  fifty  dollars ;  myriads  of  no 
tices  from  college  and  juvenile  literary  societies 
throughout  the  land,  notifying  me  that  I  have  been 
elected  an  honorary  member,  and  signifying  their 
willingness  to  accept  a  copy  of  my  poems,  are  a  few 
of  the  demands  that  are  made  upon  my  patience  and 
purse,  not  to  speak  of  the  inroads  upon  my  stationery 
and  stamps.  Then,  too,  I  am  favored  by  affectionate 
fathers  with  epistles  announcing  that  their  eldest-born 
has  been  named  after  me,  a  calamity  that  costs  me  a 
letter  of  profound  gratefulness,  the  correspondence 
usually  terminating  with  a  gentle  hint  that  the  illus 
trious  poet's  namesake's  parents  would  greatly  prize  a 
copy  of  his  poetical  writings,  with  the  dear  child's 
name  inscribed  in  the  book,  etc.,  etc.  Fathers  and 
daughters,  mothers  and  brothers,  nieces  and  nephews, 
of  defunct  individuals,  of  whose  existence  I  never  had 
the  slightest  knowledge,  send  me  pages  descriptive  of 
the  dear  departed,  with  requests  that  I  will  write  a 
poem  about  them,  similar  to  the  one  beginning  '  Green 
be  the  turf  above  thee,'  etc.  The  other  day  a  daugh- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  420 

ter  of sent  me  five  closely-written  quarto  pages, 

descriptive  of  her  departed  dad,  whom  I  never  saw,  with 
the  information  that,  on  the  receipt  of  such  a  piece  as  I 
had  written  on  Dr.  Drake,  my  bill  for  the  same  should 
be  paid,  an  instance  of  liberality  rarely  indulged  in  by 
those  who  made  similar  modest  and  cool  applications. 
Another  source  of  annoyance  to  me  are  the  con 
stant  appeals  that  are  made  by  the  editors  and  pub 
lishers  of  periodicals  in  all  parts  of  the  land  for  con 
tributions.  Announcements  from  trustees  of  female 
seminaries  that  I  have  been  selected  as  a  member  of  a 
committee  to  award  a  gold  medal  or  some  other  prize  to 
the  writer  of  the  best  essay  in  their  highest  department, 
and  applications  from  histrionic  friends  that  I  would  act 
with  others  jn  awarding  a  prize  to  the  writer  of  the  best 
theatrical  address,  are  two  of  the  torments  that  were 
inflicted  upon  me  in  bygone  days,  when  such  things 
were  in  fashion." 

So  many  years  have  passed  since  the  summer  even 
ing  that  we  sat  together  under  Mr.  Halleck's  favorite 
tree,  and  the  poet  related  half  in  jest  and  half  in  ear 
nest  his  many  and  manifold  trials,  that  I  cannot  pre 
tend  to  give  his  exact  words.  His  inimitable  serio 
comic  manner,  of  course,  cannot  be  described ;  but  I 
am  confident  that  the  substance  of  his  remarks  has 
been  faithfully  retained  in  my  memory. 

Mr.  Halleck  took  great  pleasure  in  encouraging 
young  authors  and  artists,  and  was  always  ready  to  aid 


430  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

them  with  advice,  as  well  as  pecuniary  assistance  from 
his  slender  purse.  Miss  Sedgwick  and  Mrs.  Kirkland 
often  sought  his  opinion  on  literary  points;  Mrs. 
Sigourney  more  than  once  submitted  poems  to  him 
for  his  revision  before  their  publication;  and  Mrs. 
Ellet  informs  me  that  the  poet  arranged  at  the  Park 
Theatre  for  the  production  of  her  first  tragedy,  "  Te 
resa  Contarini."  Drake,  Morris,  and  Samuel  Wood- 
worth  had  the  benefit  of  his  almost  faultless  judgment 
in  poetry ;  and  some  of  our  younger  singers  speak  most 
gratefully  of  Mr.  Halleck  for  the  advice  as  well  as  the 
pecuniary  assistance  received  from  him  in  the  hour 
of  trouble,  when  a  "damp"  had  fallen  around  their 
paths.  A  gifted  writer,  who  published  a  volume  of 
poems  a  few  years  since,  was  indebted  to  the  maestro 
for  touching  with  a  master's  hand  at  least  a  score  of 
his  compositions,  and  almost  the  last  of  the  poet's  acts 
before  the  shadow  of  death  fell  upon  him  was  to  render 
the  poem  of  a  friend  more  complete  by  a  few  altera 
tions  and  the  addition  of  a  verse.  The  mad  poet, 
McDonald  Clarke,  often  received  "  aids"  and  "  benev 
olences  "  from  the  kind-hearted  Halleck ;  and,  upon 
more  than  one  occasion,  said,  "  I  would  rather  have  a 
kind  word  from  that  noble  man,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck, 
than  from  any  emperor." 

One  of  the  younger  poets  who  received  substantial 
assistance  from  Mr.  Halleck  was  Edgar  A.  Poe,  to 
whom  he  loaned,  in  answer  to  the  following  appeal, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  43! 

one  hundred  dollars,  a  sum  which  the  gifted  but  un 
fortunate  young  singer,  like  many  others  of  the  rhym 
ing  fraternity,  who  received  "aid  from  the  generous 
Halleck,  was  never  able  to  repay  : 

[TO    FITZ-GREENE   HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Dec.  i,  1845. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  HALLECK  :  On  the  part  of  one  or 
two  persons  who  are  much  imbittered  against  me,  there 
is  a  deliberate  attempt  now  being  made  to  involve  me 
in  ruin,  by  destroying  The  Broadway  Journal.  I 
could  easily  frustrate  them,  but  for  my  total  want  of 
money,  and  of  the  necessary  time  in  which  to  procure 
it :  the  knowledge  of  this  has  given  my  enemies  the 
opportunities  desired. 

In  this  emergency — without  leisure  to  think  whether 

I  am  acting  improperly — I  venture  to  appeal  to  you. 

The  sum  I  need  is  $100.     If  you  could  loan  me  for 

three  months  any  portion  of  it,  I  will  not  be  ungrateful. 

Truly  yours, 

EDGAR  A.  POE. 

Another  instance  of  Mr.  Halleck's  liberality  may  be 
mentioned  en  passant.  When  the  old  church  on  the 
Guilford  Green,  beneath  whose  shadows  the  poet's 
mother  and  infant  brother  were  buried,  and  in  which 
he  was  baptized  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  confirmed, 
was  taken  down  and  a  new  and  finer  fane  was  erected 


432  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

in  1838,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck  gave  out  of  his  limited  income  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  dollars  toward*  its  erection.  It  was  in  this 
edifice,  known  as  Christ  Church,  that  the  poet's  funeral 
services  were  celebrated  in  November,  1 867,  a  sufficient 
refutation,  I  should  consider,  to  the  often-repeated  but 
groundless  statement  that  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Apropos  to  this  charge,  I 
will  introduce  here  an  incident  furnished  to  me  by  Wil 
liam  Gowans,  the  antiquarian  bookseller,  whose  store 
was  a  favorite  place  of  resort  with  the  poet  for  upward 
of  a  quarter  of  a  century :  "  One  Sunday  morning," 
says  Mr.  Gowans,  "  as  I  was  passing  a  Roman  Catholic 
church  in  the  city  of  New  York,  seeing  the  doors  open 
and  throngs  of  people  pressing  in,  I  stepped  inside  to  see 
what  I  could  see,  hear  what  I  could  hear,  and  learn  what 
I  could  learn.  I  had  not  well  got  inside  till  I  beheld 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck  standing  uncovered,  with  reveren 
tial  attitude,  among  the  crowd,  kneeling  and  standing, 
of  unshorn  and  unwashed  worshippers  which  can  al 
ways  be  seen  on  Sundays  both  inside  and  out  of  these 
houses  of  worship,  in  irregular  confusion,  with  little  or 
no  respect  paid  to  them  by  the  functionaries  of  the 
church  or  those  who  are  wealthy  enough  to  pay  for 
comfortable  pews.  I  remained  till  I  saw  him  leave. 
In  doing  so  he  made  a  courteous  bow,  as  is  the  polite 
custom  by  the  humblest  of  these  people  on  taking 
their  departure.  I  immediately  followed,  and,  on 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  433 

coming  up, ,  took  the  liberty  to  ask  him  if  he  was  a 
member  of  this  church.  In  reply,  he  said,  '  I  am  not. 
I  presume  you  are  a  member  of  this  church,  or  one 
of  the  same  ? '  I  replied  in  the  negative.  '  I  had  sup 
posed,'  said  he,  'that  all  Irishmen  were  Roman  Catho 
lics.'  I  said  that  there  was  a  twofold  mistake  in  this 
conclusion,  for,  in  the  first  place,  all  Irishmen  are  not 
Roman  Catholics,  any  more  than  all  Scotchmen  are 
Calvinists ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  I  am  not  a  native 
of  the  Green  Isle.  Said  he,  '  I  have  always  supposed 
you  to  be  such ;  where,  then,  are  you  from  ? '  I  said 
from  that  land  that  he  had  aided  in  rendering  still 
more  immortal  by  one  of  his  noblest  effusions.  '  Scot 
land,'  exclaimed  he,  '  bonny  Scotland.'  'That,'  said 
I,  'is  the  land  of  my  nativity,  but,'  I  continued,  'we 
derive  neither  glory  nor  shame  from  the  place  of  our 
birth.  It  is  an  event  of  our  life  over  which  we  have  no 
control.'  '  That,'  he  replied,  '  is  very  true.'  How  he 
came  to  have  any  predilections  for  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  I  never  could  exactly  learn,  but  guessed.  This 
affinity  was  the  more  remarkable,  inasmuch  as  he  was 
descended  from  one  of  the  sternest  of  Puritan  ances 
tors,  John  Eliot,  the  famous  apostle  of  the  North- 
American  Indians,  and  translator  of  the  Bible  into 
their  language,  as  well  as  the  author  of  a  grammar  of 
the  same.  And,  further,  I  have  understood  that  he 
took  pleasure  in  letting  it  be  known  that  he  was  so 
descended." 

19 


434  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Among  the  distinguished  authors  who  sat  down  to 
dinner  with  Charles  Dickens  at  the  City  Hotel,  in  New 
York,  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit  to  this  country, 
was  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  who  recorded  his  impressions 
of  the  great  novelist  in  a  letter  sent  with  some  verses 
to  Mrs.  Rush,  of  Philadelphia,  March  8,  1842  :  "  I  am 
highly  flattered  by  the  compliment  paid  me  by  yourself 
and  the  lady  you  do  not  name  in  your  letter  of  Feb 
ruary  26th.  Your  wishes  have  always  been  commands 
with  me,  and  so  I  send  you  the  enclosed  such  as  they 
are.  I  fear  they  are  far  from  good,  for  I  am  grievously 
out  of  practice.  Luckily,  as  the  postage,  you  say,  costs 
you  nothing,  you  will  have  them  at  their  full  value. 
I  have,  as  in  duty  bound,  presumed  the  lady  to  be 
young,  and  pretty,  and  unmarried. 

"  You  ask  about  Mr.  Boz.  I  am  quite  delighted 
with  him.  He  is  a  thorough  good  fellow,  with  nothing 
of  the  author  about  him  but  the  reputation,  and  goes 
through  his  task  as  Lion  with  exemplary  grace,  pa 
tience,  and  good-nature.  He  has  the  brilliant  face  of  a 
man  of  genius,  and  a  pretty  Scottish  lassie  for  a  wife, 
with  roses  on  her  cheeks,  and  '  een  sae  bonny  blue. ' 
His  writings  you  know.  I  wish  you  had  listened  to  his 
eloquence  at  the  dinner  here.  It  was  the  only  speci 
men  of  eloquence  I  have  ever  witnessed.  Its  charm 
was  not  in  its  words,  but  in  the  manner  of  saying 
them."  The  verses  referred  to  in  Mr.  Halleck's  letter 
are  the  following : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Lady,  I  thank  you  for  your  letter ; 

Would  that  these  rhymes  it  asks  were  better 

Worthy  of  her  who  taught 
My  song,  when  life  was  in  its  June, 
To  mingle  heart  with  word  and  tune, 

And  melody  with  thought. 

Gone  are  the  days  of  sunny  weather 

(I  quote  remembered  words),  when  we 
"  Revelled  in  poetry"  together;  . 

And  frightened  leaves  from  off  their  tree, 
With  declamation  loud  and  long, 
From  epic  sage  and  merry  song, 

And  odes,  and  madrigals,  and  sonnets, 
Till  all  the  birds  within  the  wood, 
And  people  of  the  neighborhood, 

Said  we'd  "  a  bee  in  both  our  bonnets." 
And  he  !  sat  listening,  he  the  most 
Honored  and  loved,  and  early  lost — 
He  in  whose  mind's  brief  boyhood  hour 
Was  blended,  by  the  marvellous  power 

That  Heaven-sent  genius  gave, 
The  green  blade  with  the  golden  grain  ; 
Alas  !  to  bloom  and  beard  in  vain, 
Sheafed  round  a  sick-room's  bed  of  pain, 

And  garnered  in  the  grave. 

They  are  far  away,  those  sunny  days, 
And,  since  we  watched  their  setting  rays, 

1  Joseph  Rodman  Drake. 


436  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

The  music  of  the  voice  of  praise 
From  many  a  land,  and  many  a  clime, 
Has  greeted  my  astonished  rhyme  ; 
Till  half  in  doubt,  half  pleased,  it  curled 
Its  queerest  lip  upon  the  world, 
But  never  heard  I  flattery's  tone 
Sounding  around  me,  "  Bard,  well  done  !  " 
Without  a  blessing  on  the  One 
Who  flattered  first — the  bonnie  nurse 
Whose  young  hand  rocked  my  cradled  verse. 

Long  may  her  voice,  as  now,  be  near 
To  prompt,  to  pardon,  and  to  cheer ; 
And  long  be  smiles,  for  goodness'  sake, 

Upon  her  best  of  happy  faces, 
Like  Spenser's  Una's  given  to  make 

A  sunshine  in  the  shadiest  places  ! 

ON    BEING    REQUESTED    BY    MRS.    RUSH     TO    SEND    HER    MY 
AUTOGRAPH    FOR    A    YOUNG    LADY. 

There  wanted  but  this  drop  to  fill 
The  wifeless  poet's  cup  of  fame. 

Hurrah  !  there  lives  a  lady  still, 
Willing  to  take  his  name. 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

It  will  be  observed  by  the  above  letter,  that  Halleck 
was  delighted  with  Dickens,  because  he  "  had  nothing 
of  the  author  about  him  ;  "  fully  sympathizing  with  the 
well-known  sentiment  of  Byron  on  this  point : 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  437 

"  One  hates  an  author  that's  all  author — fellows 
In  foolscap  uniform  turned  up  with  ink ; 

So  very  anxious,  clever,  fine,  and  jealous, 

One  don't  know  what  to  say  to  them,  or  think — 

Unless  to  puff  them  with  a  pair  of  bellows  j 
Of  coxcombry's  worst  coxcomb,  e'en  the  pink 

Are  preferable  to  those  of  paper — 

Those  unquenched  snumngs  of  the  midnight  taper." 

On  the  occasion  of  his  last  visit  but  one  to  New 
York,  in  June,  1867,  I  asked  Mr.  Halleck  about  the 
Dickens  dinner,  when  he  gave  me  a  pleasant  descrip 
tion  of  the  entertainment,  including  an  amusing  account 
of  Washington  Irving's  speech,  which  was  going  off 
finely,  until  their  mutual  friend,  Charles  Augustus 
Davis,  alias  Major  Jack  Downing,1  who  sat  near  Irving, 
most  unfortunately  interrupted  him  with,  "  Admirable  ! 
excellent !  "  and  other  exclamations  of  approbation, 
which  so  disconcerted  the  timid  speaker,  that  he  com 
pletely  broke  down ;  and,  after  uttering  some  incohe 
rent  words,  ended  with  the  toast,  "  Charles  Dickens, 
the  guest  of  the  nation."  " There,"  said  Irving  as  he  re 
sumed  his  seat,  "  I  told  you  I  should  break  down,  and 
I've  done  it!"  "He  reminded  me,"  added  Halleck, 
"  of  a  certain  Connecticut  orator  who,  while  addressing 
a  public  assembly,  unfortunately  lost  the  thread  of  his 

1  In  addition  to  the  poet's  authority  for  the  statement  that  Davis  was 
the  original  Jack  Downing,  Henry  Delafield  has  a  volume  of  the  Letters, 
inscribed  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Davis,  "  From  the  Author." 


438  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

discourse,  and,  hesitating  to  recover  his  lost  ideas,  was 
addressed  from  the  gallery  by  a  country  lad,  with  the 
words  :  '  /  say,  mister,  I  guess  yoifre  stuck  / ' '  An 
other  Dickens  dinner,  which  Halleck  described  to  me, 
was  given  at  the  Astor  House,  by  the  Novelties  Club, 
composed  of  New-York  actors,  artists,  and  editors,  and 
was  presided  over  by  his  friend,  the  late  Judge  William 
Kent,  a  son  of  the  Chancellor. 

The  renowned  novelist  and  the  genial  poet  became 
warm  friends,  meeting  often  at  social  entertainments, 
and  exchanging  various  courtesies.  The  following  is 
one  of  several  notes  received  by  Mr.  Halleck  from 
Dickens  during  his  sojourn  in  New  York  : 

[TO  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

CARLETON  HOUSE,  Fourteenth  February,  1842. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  Will  you  come  and  breakfast  with 
me  on  Tuesday,  the  twenty-second,  at  half-past  ten  ? 
Say  yes.  .  I  should  have  been  truly  delighted  to  have  a 
talk  with  you  to-night  (being  quite  alone),  but  the  doc 
tor  says  that  if  I  talk  to  man,  woman,  or  child,  this 
evening,  I  shall  be  dumb  to-morrow. 
Believe  me,  with  true  regard, 

Faithfully  your  friend, 

CHARLES  DICKENS. 

Halleck's  reply  to  an  invitation  to  meet  Boz  at  a 
private  dinner  given  by  Louis  Gaylord  Clark,  at  which 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  439 

Irving,  Bryant,  and  several  lesser  literary  lights  were  to 
be  present,  was  characteristically  felicitous.  It  began  : 

"  The  bridegroom  may  forget  the  bride 

Was  made  his  wedded  wife  yestreen, 
The  monarch  may  forget  the  crown 
Which  on  his  head  an  hour  hath  been, 

but  /'//  not  forget  that  I  am  to  have  the  pleasure  of 
dining  with  you  on  Thursday  evening,  to  meet  that 
rare  painter  of  human  character,  Mr.  Dickens." 

"  The  time  when  I  saw  most  of  Mr.  Irving,"  said 
Professor  C.  C.  Fclton,  afterward  President  of  Harvard 
College,  "  was  the  winter  of  1842,  during  the  visit  of 
Charles  Dickens  in  New  York.  I  had  known  this  al 
ready  distinguished  writer  in  Boston  and  Cambridge, 
and,  while  passing  some  weeks  with  my  dear  and  la 
mented  friend,  Albert  Sumner.  I  renewed  my  ac 
quaintance  with  Mr.  Dickens,  often  meeting  him  in  the 
brilliant  society  which  then  made  New  York  a  most 
agreeable  resort.  Halleck,  Bryant,  Washington  Irving, 
Davis,  and  others  scarcely  less  attractive  by  their  gen 
ius,  wit,  and  social  graces,  constituted  a  circle  not  to 
be  surpassed  anywhere  in  the  world."  l 

Only  a  fortnight  before  Dickens  arrived  at  Boston 
on  his  second  visit  to  the  United  States,  Halleck  spoke 
with  pleasure  of  the  great  gratification  he  anticipated 
in  again  meeting  the  distinguished  author,  and  of  his 

1  Address  on  Irving,  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


440  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

intention  of  visiting  New  York  for  that  purpose.  We 
were,  he  proposed,  to  have  a  quiet  dinner  together, 
with  the  novelist  and  H.  T.  Tuckerman,  and  I  was,  if 
possible,  to  secure  front  seats  for  one  of  his  readings, 
in  order  that  Mr.  Halleck  might  hear  him  distinctly. 
That  Dickens  entertained  an  equal  desire  to  meet  the 
poet,  is  shown  by  the  following  note  to  the  author, 
who  had  sent  Mr.  Dickens  a  copy  of  the  poet's 
letter  of  March  8,  1842,  to  Mrs.  Rush,  in  which  he 
spoke  of  his  eloquence  at  the  public  dinner  given  at 
the  City  Hotel : 

[TO  JAMES   GRANT  WILSON.] 

WESTMINSTER  HOTEL,  NEW  YORK, 

SatrtJ-day,  iitk  January,  1868. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  thank  you  cordially  for  your  con 
siderate  kindness  in  sending  me  the  enclosed  note.1 
I  have  read  it  with  the  greatest  interest,  and  have  al 
ways  retained  a  delightful  recollection  of  its  amiable 
and  accomplished  writer. 

I  too  had  hoped  to  see  him  !  My  dear  Irving  being 
dead,  there  was  scarcely  any  one  in  America  whom  I 
so  looked  forward  to  seeing  again  as  our  old  friend 
often  thought  of.  Dear  sir, 

Yours  faithfully  and  obliged, 

CHARLES  DICKENS. 

1  Halleck's  epistle  to  Mrs.  Rush,  on  page  434. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  445 

It  is  melancholy  to  contemplate  the  number  of 
eminent  American  authors  who  had  since  the  first 
visit  of  Charles  Dickens,  only  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  ago,  "gone  hence,  to  be  no  more  seen."  The 
sturdy  Cooper  ;  the  gentle  Irving ;  his  friend  and  kins 
man  Paulding;  Prescott,  the  historian,  and  Percival, 
the  poet ;  the  eloquent  Everett ;  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 
Edgar  A.  Poe,  N.  P.  Willis,  and  the  genial  Halleck 
— nearly  all  the  great  names  of  our  early  American 
literature — had  passed  away  in  twenty-five  short  years, 
leaving  a  new  generation  to  extend  the  hand  of  friend 
ship  to  him  on  his  second  coming  in  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-seven.  Many  lesser  literary  lights,  including 
Halleck's  attached  friends  Catherine  M.  Sedgwick, 
Caroline  M.  Kirkland,  Charles  A.  Davis,  and  George 
P.  Morris,  had  also  passed  away  forever. 

[TO  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

PHILADELPHIA,  25^/2  July,  1843. 

DEAR  SIR  :  You  will  have  seen  by  a  proof  sent  you 
several  weeks  ago  that  Mr.  Parker  has  succeeded  re 
markably  well  in  copying  Mr.  Inman's  portrait  of  you 
for  Graham's  Magazine.  Mr.  Inman  expressed  to  me 
his  perfect  satisfaction  with  the  execution  of  the  plate, 
and  I  think  it  will  generally  be  deemed  better  even  than 
that  of  the  Mirror.  It  will  be  published  in  the  maga 
zine  for  September,  and  you  will  very  much  gratify  me 
if  you  will  send  a  poem  to  appear  in  the  same  number. 
19* 


442  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

Any  thing  by  you  will,  of  course,  be  gladly  received  and 
promptly  paid  for  at  the  highest  rates  ever  paid  for 
contributions  to  periodicals  in  America.  Mr.  Bryant, 
Mr.  Dana,  and  Mr.  Longfellow  receive  from  Mr.  Gra 
ham  fifty  dollars  an  article,  and  that  sum,  or  one  yet 
larger,  will  be  paid  to  you. 

Instead  of  attempting  an  illustrative  sketch  myself, 
I  employed  Mr.  Edgar  A.  Poe  to  write  an  essay  on  your 
poetry  and  a  sketch  of  your  history.  I  have  just  read 
his  manuscript,  and  think  that  your  friends  will  be 
gratified  with  the  article.  I  will  send  you  an  early 
copy  of  it. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

RUFUS  W.  GRISWOLD. 

In  reference  to  the  concluding  portion  of  the  first 
paragraph  of  the  above  letter,  I  may  state,  singular  as 
it  may  appear  in  these  days,  when  poets  are  paid  a 
guinea  a  line  for  contributions  by  enterprising  pub 
lishers  of  periodicals,  Mr.  Halleck  never  received  any 
compensation  for  the  poems  he  contributed  to  the 
Evening  Post,  National  Advocate,  and  other  journals 
and  magazines,  extending  over  a  period  of  nearly 
twenty  years — years  during  which  his  most  admired 
productions  were  published.  Halleck  appears  to  have 
written  with  the  most  unselfish  indifference  to  fame  or 
pecuniary  reward,  for,  up  to  the  year  1839,  neither  on 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  443 

the  title-pages  of  his  published  volumes,  nor  with  his 
single  contributions  to  the  press,  did  his  name  appear. 
For  "The  Croakers"  neither  he  nor  Dr.  Drake  ever 
received  the  slightest  pecuniary  reward,  nor  did  they 
desire  any.  They  were  at  the  time  both  young  men, 
the  one  in  affluent  circumstances  by  marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  an  opulent  merchant;  the  other  in  the 
receipt  of  a  good  salary,  and  with  but  few  and  modest 
wants.  Those  were  not  the  days,  at  least  in  New 
York,  when  authorship  was  a  profitable  profession,  as 
is  the  case  at  present  with  many  of  its  members — days 
when  a  popular  preacher  is  paid  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  for  a  novel — a  larger  sum  than  the  poet  received 
for  the  literary  labors  of  a  lifetime. 

Truly  the  world  is  somewhat  changed  since  John 
Milton  sold  the  lines  of  "  Paradise  Lost  "  at  something 
less  than  a  farthing  apiece,  taking  his  substantial  pay 
in  a  draft  on  posterity,  payable  after  death,  with  in 
terest;  since  Samuel  Johnson  ate  his  dinners  behind 
the  screen  in  Cave's  parlor,  back  of  the  shop,  -because 
he  was  too  much  out  at  the  elbows  to  be  presentable  at 
a  tradesman's  table  ;  since  Oliver  Goldsmith  was  pen 
ning  an  animated  romance  on  "Animated  Nature,"  at 
just  shillings  enough  per  sheet  to  keep  the  bailiffs 
from  his  door ;  and  since  the  tragic  termination  of  poor 
Chatterton's  too  brief  career.  Certainly  the  leading 
authors  of  to-day — or,  as  they  may  be  termed,  the  real 
autocrats  of  literature — have  no  longer  occasion  to  for- 


444 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


give  Napoleon  his  misdeeds,  as  Tom  Campbell  did,  on 
the  ground  that  he  shot  a  bookseller.  They  are  now 
masters  of  the  situation  and  lords  in  the  ascendant; 
and  no  longer,  as  of  old,  retainers  of  the  bookseller, 
but  the  bookseller  must  wait,  hat  in  hand,  on  the 
bookmaker.  Authors,  even  of  the  second  class,  may 
now  most  truly  say,  "Nous  avons  change  tout  cela." 

From  the  article  referred  to  by  Mr.  Griswold  in  the 
foregoing  letter,  I  extract  a  single  paragraph :  "  His 
usual  pursuits,"  writes  Mr.  Poe,  "have  been  commer 
cial;  but,  for  many  years,  he  has  been  the  principal 
superintendent  of  John  Jacob  Astor's  monetary  and 
general  business  affairs.  Of  late  days,  consequently, 
he  has  nearly  abandoned  the  Muses — much  to  the 
regret  of  his  friends  and  to  the  neglect  of  his  reputa 
tion.  He  is  now  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers,  and 
might  redeem  America  from  an  imputation  to  which 
she  has  been  too  frequently  subjected — the  imputation 
of  inability  to  produce  a  great  poem.  A  few  brief 
translations,  at  rare  intervals,  and  chiefly  from  vapid 
German  or  Spanish  originals,  are  now  all  that  remind 
us  of  '  Marco  Bozzaris,'  or  that,  as  a  poet,  its  author 
still  lives." 

The  following  song,  written  probably  in  1844,  first 
appeared  in  the  Evening  Mirror,  as  I  learn  by  a  note 
from  George  P.  Morris,  requesting  Mr.  Halleck  to 
favor  him  with  a  copy  of  the  lines  for  publication.  It 
was  a  very  great  favorite  with  General  Morris,  who  for 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  445 

many  years  published  this  song  of  the  unmarried  an 
nually  in  the  Home  Journal : 

The  winds  of  March  are  humming 

Their  parting  song,  their  parting  song, 
And  summer  skies  are  coming, 

And  days  grow  long,  and  days  grow  long. 
I  watch,  but  not  in  gladness, 

Our  garden-tree,  our  garden-tree ; 
It  buds,  in  sober  sadness, 
Too  soon  for  me,  too  soon  for  me. 
My  second  winter's  over, 

Alas  !  and  I,  alas  !  and  I 
Have  no  accepted  lover : 
Don't  ask  me  why,  don't  ask  me  why. 

Tis  not  asleep  or  idle 

That  Love  has  been,  that  Love  has  been, 
For  many  a  happy  bridal 

The  year  has  seen,  the  year  has  seen ; 
I've  done  a  bridemaid's  duty, 

At  three  or  four,  at  three  or  four ; 
My  best  bouquet  had  beauty, 
Its  donor  more,  its  donor  more. 
My  scond  winter's  over, 

Alas  !  and  I,  alas  !  and  I 
Have  no  accepted  lover  : 
Don't  ask  me  why,  don't  ask  me  why. 

His  flowers  my  bosom  shaded 
One  sunny  day,  one  sunny  day ; 


446  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

The  next  they  fled  and  faded, 

Beau  and  bouquet,  beau  and  bouquet. 
In  vain,  at  balls  and  parties, 

I've  thrown  my  net,  I've  thrown  my  net ; 
This  waltzing,  watching  heart  is 
Unchosen  yet,  unchosen  yet. 
My  second  winter's  over, 

Alas  !  and  I,  alas  !  and  I 
Have  no  accepted  lover  : 
Don't  ask  me  why,  don't  ask  me  why. 

They  tell  me  there's  no  hurry 

For  Hymen's  ring,  for  Hymen's  ring ; 
And  I'm  too  young  to  marry  : 

'Tis  no  such  thing,  'tis  no  such  thing. 
The  next  spring-tides  will  dash  on 

My  eighteenth  year,  my  eighteenth  year ; 
It  puts  me  in  a  passion, 

Oh,  dear,  oh  dear !  oh  dear,  oh  dear  ! 
My  second  winter's  over, 

Alas  !  and  I,  alas  !  and  I 
Have  no  accepted  lover  : 

Don't  ask  me  why,  don't  ask  me  why. 

The  following  amusing  letter  from  Mr.  Davis,  writ 
ten  on  a  sheet  of  note-paper,  at  the  top  of  which  is 
seen  a  fine  view  of  Alloway  Kirk,  contains  some  pleas 
ant  allusions  to  classic  ground.  I  must  here  express 
my  regret  that  Mr.  Halleck's  letters  to  his  facetious 
friend,  with  whom  he  maintained  a  correspondence  for 
so  many  years,  have  not  been  recovered. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  447 

[TO  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

zd  jfuly,  1845. 

k 

MY  DEAR  HALLECK  :  Do  you  see  that  g  ? 1  Well, 
though  I  am  now  in  Glasgow,  I  was  last  evening  and 
all  this  morning  just  there,  and  in  a  beautiful  little 
cottage,  called  "  Doonbrae  Cottage."  Near  the  kirk 
on  Boon  side  lives  one  David  Auld,  and  didn't  he 
and  I  crack  away  about  Burns  and  that  "  wild  rose  of 
Alloway,  my  thanks !  "  He  was  quite  charmed  at  learn 
ing  that  I  knew  you.  I  went  so  far  as  to  tell  him  that 
most  of  the  farms  and  places  about  New  York  you  and 
I  held  equal  titles  to,  and  that  was  no  untruth.  I 
write  this  mainly  to  say  that  he  has  made  me  the 
bearer  of  a  tin  case,  containing  a  very  excellent  en 
graving  of  an  admirable  picture  of  the  entire  scenery 
around.  I  believe  the  monument  has  been  erected  since 
you  were  there.  I  have  been  now  over  most  of  the 
scenes  consecrated  by  Scott,  but  none  of  them  touched 
me  so  closely  as  this  of  Burns,  to  which  your  genius 
seems  to  come  in  as  a  clincher,  "  a  real  hug-me-tight " 
(but  that  is  not  "  a  merry  thought ").  The  fact  is,  you 
are  about  as  well  known  "  hereabouts  "  as  Burns.  I 
can't  tell  you  how  many  agreeable  things  David  Auld 
says  of  you.  He  kens  all  about  you,  and  regards 
your  lay,  though  on  "a.  rose,"  the' best  since  Burns. 
I  told  him  you  did  that  with  your  left  hand,  and  when 

1  This  index  [  Idjp0  ]  refers  to  the  engraved  view  of  Alloway  Kirk. 


448  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

he  came  to  read  other  matter,  done  with  t'other  hand, 
he  would  go  into  a  fit.  I  could  not  wait  for  him 
to  pack  the  parcel,  so  he  brought  it  to  Ayr  after  me, 
and  I'll  bring  it  home  to  you.  It  is  a  clumsy  com 
panion,  but  I  put  it  to  the  debit  side  of  the  account, 
the  only  chance  I  have  had  in  return  for  the  pleasure 
your  pen  has  given  me. 

I  have  been  for  the  last  few  days  amid  scenes  of 
magic,  and  how  I  shall  get  driven  again  to  pig  iron, 
etc.,  in  Broad  Street,  it  is  hard  for  me  to  tell.  I  have 
not  room  or  time  to  dilate,  but,  when  I  take  you  by 
the  hand  (a.  dangerous  thing  coming  from  Scotland), 
I'll  tell  you  all.  I  am  quite  sure  I  have  seen  much 
more  than  any  other  (t  living  critter,"  and  what  I  have 
not  seen  I  can  talk  of  quite  as  well  as  others. 
Your  friend, 

CH.  AG.  DAVIS. 

"  The  name  of  Halleck,"  wrote  Edgar  A.  Poe  in 
1846,  "  is  at  least  as  well  established  in  the  poetical 
world  as  that  of  any  American.  Our  principal  poets 
are,  perhaps,  more  frequently  named  in  this  order — 
Bryant,  Halleck,  Dana,  Sprague,  Longfellow,  Willis, 
and  so  on,  Halleck  coming  second  in  the  series,  but 
holding,  in  fact,  a  rank  in  the  public  opinion  quite 
equal  to  that  of  Bjryant.  *  *  *  I  mean  to  say,  of 
course,  that  Mr.  Halleck,  in  the  apparent  public  esti 
mate,  maintains  a  somewhat  better  position  than  that 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  449 

to  which,  on  absolute  grounds,  he  is  entitled.  There  is 
something,  too,  in  the  bonhommie  of  certain  of  his  com 
positions—something  altogether  distinct  from  poetic 
merit — which  has  aided  to  establish  him ;  and  much 
also  must  be  admitted  on  the  score  of  his  personal 
popularity,  which  is  deservedly  great.  With  all  these 
allowances,  however,  there  will  still  be  found  a  large 
amount  of  poetical  fame,  to  which  he  is  fairly  entitled." 
Elsewhere  the  same  writer  says  of  Halleck:  "Per 
sonally,  he  is  a  man  to  be  admired,  respected,  but 
more  especially  beloved.  His  address  has  all  the  cap 
tivating  bonhommie  which  is  the  leading  feature  of  his 
poetry,  and,  indeed,  of  his  whole  moral  nature.  With 
his  friends  he  is  all  ardor,  enthusiasm,  and  cordiality ; 
but  to  the  world  at  large  he  is  reserved,  shunning 
society,  into  which  he  is  seduced  only  with  difficulty, 
and  upon  rare  occasions.  The  love  of  solitude  seems 
to  have  become  with  him  a  passion. 

"  He  is  a  good  modern  linguist,  and  an  excellent 
belles-lettres  scholar  in  general;  he  has  read  a  good 
deal,  although  very  discursively.  He  is  what  the 
world  calls  ultra  in  most  of  his  opinions,  more  par 
ticularly  about  literature  and  politics,  and  is  fond  of 
broaching  and  supporting  paradoxes.  He  converses 
fluently,  with  animation  and  zeal ;  is  choice  and  accu 
rate  in  his  language,  exceedingly  quick  at  repartee,  and 
apt  at  anecdotes.  His  manners  are  courteous,  with  dig 
nity,  and  a  little  tincture  of  Gallicism.  His  age  is  about 


450  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

fifty.  In  height  he  is  about  five  feet  seven.  He  has 
been  stout,  but  may  now  be  called  well  proportioned. 
His  forehead  is  a  noble  one,  broad,  massive,  and  intel 
lectual,  a  little  bald  about  the  temples ;  eyes  dark  and 
brilliant,  but  not  large ;  nose  Grecian ;  chin  prominent ; 
mouth  finely  chiselled  and  full  of  expression,  although 
the  lips  are  thin.  His  smile  is  peculiarly  sweet." 

The  following  communication  is  from  one  of  Amer 
ica's  most  admired  female  writers,  and  a  lady  who 
numbered  among  her  many  most  deeply-attached 
friends  Fitz-Greene  Halleck : 

[TO  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

NEW  YORK,  Feb.  14,  1846. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  Seeing  all  the  young  folks  busy 
with  valentines,  I  took  it  into  my  head  to  send  you 
these  verses,  which  I  found  among  the  papers  of  my 
mother,  one  of  your  warmest  admirers.  I  sent  them 
to  the  Knickerbocker •,  but  thought  it  likely  you  had 
never  seen  them.  You  see  I  take  it  for  granted  you 
are  in  a  good  valentining  humor,  or  I  should  not  ven 
ture  to  send  you  a  trifle  like  this. 
Yours  sincerely, 

CAROLINE  M.  KIRKLAND. 

• 

TO  A  CERTAIN   POET,    ON   READING  CERTAIN  VERSES. 
"  I  turned  away  in  sadness,  and  passed  on." 

And  had  that  luckless  sapphic  blue, 

Her  power  to  neutralize  "  Love's  proper  hue  ?  " 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^1 

Henceforth  each  nymph  the  fatal  color  shun, 
That  lost  the  heart  a  rainbow  cestus  won. 

Say,  gifted  one,  is  this  the  lordly  reason 

Why,  singly  blest,  we're  told,  you  still  remain  ? 
Ah  !  we  declare,  and  that  our  bended  knees  on, 

With  any  of  our  set  your  fears  were  vain. 
There's  Lilla,  with  her  lips  of  glossy  coral, 

Floranthe,  smiling  through  her  amber  locks  ; 
Blanc-manged-faced  Eve,  with  whom  you  cannot  quarrel, 

Though  ten  times  every  day  her  ears  you  box  ; 

There's  fairest  Anne,  the  oil  without  the  mustard; 

Helen,  whose  foot  fits  Cinderella's  shoe; 
And  thrifty  Grace,  that  made  the  premium  custard, 

And  Thyrza,  softer  than  the  morning  dew. 

These,  whom  some  kindling  lip  the  strain  rehearses, 
That  tells  of  Hotspur  and  his  gentle  one, 
Or  how  that  glorious  Greek  the  victory  won, 
Shall  lisp  applause,  and  call  them  " pretty  verses!  " 
Shall  mend  thy  faulty  hose,  though  ne'er  so  blue, 
And  from  her  own  exclude  the  obnoxious  hue ; 
Keep  bakers'  scores,  and  "  chronicle  small  beer," 
While  every  second  word  will  be  "  My  dear  !  " 

It  was  during  the  year  1846  that  Halleck  was  called 
to  mourn  the  death  of  his  devoted  friend  Henry  Inman, 
a  gifted  artist  and  a  genial  friend,  emphatically  one 
of  nature's  noblemen.  In  youth,  much  against  his 
father's  wishes,  he  studied  portrait-painting  with  John 


452  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Wesley  Jarvis,  and  before  his  lamented  death  had  at 
tained  a  degree  of  excellence  in  portraiture  not  sur 
passed  by  any  American  artist.  His  portraits  of 
Macaulay,  Chalmers,  and  Wordsworth,  are  highly 
prized  in  Great  Britain,  as  are  his  paintings  of  Bishops 
Doane,  Hobart,  Moore,  and  many  other  distinguished 
Americans.  His  portrait  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  is 
incomparably  the  best  ever  made  of  the  poet,  who 
was  painted  by  four  generations  of  artists — Jarvis, 
Inman,  Elliott,  and  Hicks. 

A  place  of  occasional  resort  with  Halleck  and  his 
artist-friend  Inman  was  at  No.  5  Barclay  Street,  a  hos- 
telrie  presided  over  by  an  Italian  named  Francis  Monte- 
verde,  but  christened  by  the  title  of  "  Frank's."  To 
this  establishment,  in  its  palmy  days,  came  many  ce 
lebrities  well  known  in  the  artistic,  literary,  fashionable, 
and  theatrical  circles  of  the  city.  Colonels  Coster  and 
Pride  ;  Barclay,  the  British  consul,  Harry  Hone,  Frank 
Waddell,  and  Walter  Livingston,  "the  last  of  the 
white  cravats,"  who  adhered  with  pertinacity  to  his 
ruffled  shirt,  buff  waistcoat,  and  blue  dress  -  coat ; 
Brougham,  Burton,  Mitchell,  and  the  Placides,  among 
actors  ;  Elliott,  Inman,  Bob  Clark,  the  animal  painter, 
and  poor  Gwilt  Mapleson,  among  artists  ;  Paterson  of 
the  Anglo-American,  Dr.  Bartlett  of  the  Albion,  Clark 
of  the  Knickerbocker,  "  York's  tall  son,"  Porter  of  the 
Spirit  of  the  Times,  and  his  four  brothers,  and  Kendall 
of  the  New-Orleans  Picayune,  among  editors  ;  and  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  453 

authors  and  poets  Halleck,  William  Henry  Herbert, 
Morris,  Poe,  and  Albert  Pike,  were  among  the  habitues 
at  Frank's.  From  an  account  of  Monteverde's,  in  the 
"  Life  of  William  T.  Porter,"  I  take  the  following  pas 
sage  :  "  The  other  disciple  of  the  Muses  is  a  fine-look 
ing,  elderly  gentleman,  reminding  one  strongly  of  that 
which  an  Englishman,  rather  than  an  American,  is  ex 
pected  to  be,  as  much  from  the  style  of  his  peculiar 
habiliments,  as  the  polite  heartiness  of  his  manner. 
Mr.  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  the  contemporary  of  John 
Targee  and  the  other  worthies  of  Tammany  Hall,  his 
pen  has  localically  immortalized,  still  survives  the  rav 
ages  of  time,  and  converses  as  agreeably  as  in  those 
days  when  Dickey  Riker  judged  and  Croaker  sung, 
above  the  turmoil  of  mercantile  life." 

Another  of  the  poet's  resorts  is  described  in  the 
following  sketch  by  Henry  T.  Tuckerman  :  "  Twenty 
years  ago  there  was  a  French  cafe  in  Warren  Street, 
the  appointments  and  aspect  of  which  closely  resem 
bled  similar  places  of  rendezvous  and  refreshment  in 
the  provincial  old  towns,  where  retired  officers,  village 
notaries,  and  political  quidnuncs,  year  in  and  year  out, 
hold  impromptu  soirees  over  snuff,  dominoes,  and  their 
demi-tasse.  The  old  marble  tables,  and  antique  cor 
dial-bottles  behind  the  counter,  the  garrulous  and 
courteous  host  in  a  faded  velvet  jacket,  and  his  buxom 
wife  with  cap  and  pen  in  alternate  motion,  with  the 
somewhat  anomalous  fact  that  nothing  garish  or  gaudy 


454  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

was  resorted  to  to  attract  custom,  and  that  the  cafe  had 
its  regular  habitues,  and  was  rarely  the  least  crowded 
or  noisy,  increased  the  European  provincial  air  to  which 
we  have  alluded.  In  the  more  or  less  fashionable 
boarding-houses  of  the  vicinity,  smoking  was  deemed 
objectionable,  and,  therefore,  many  gentlemen  visited 
the  cafe  with  diurnal  regularity,  to  puff,  prose,  or  pro- 
phesy,  according  to  the  mood.  Among  them  was  a 
Canadian  who  had  been  a  great  traveller;  a  lawyer 
whose  ambition  was  to  illustrate  jurisprudence  by  belles- 
lettres  ;  an  old  native  of  Holland  who  wrote  Dutch 
verses  and  had  been  decorated  by  his  king;  Fenno 
Hoffman,  the  stanchest  of  literary  Knickerbockers, 
fond  of  descanting,  by  the  hour,  upon  the  scenery,  the 
old  society,  the  bivalves,  beauties,  and  legendary  lore 
of  his  native  State  ;  Henry  Inman,  fresh  from  his  easel, 
and  the  most  genial  of  speculative  raconteurs.  More 
unconventional,  vivacious,  and  suggestive  colloquies 
than  found  vent  among  these  and  other  comrades  of 
the  cafe  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  ;  there  was  an 
abandon  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  self-respect  on  the 
other,  a  divergence  of  opinion  and  a  hearty  personal 
appreciation,  great  contrasts  of  taste  and  temperament, 
with  genuine  sympathy  of  tone  and  sentiment,  which 
combined  to  create  and  maintain  the  essential  condi 
tions  of  conversation  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 
Hither  it  was  Halleck's  '  custom  of  an  afternoon '  to 
adjourn,  when  his  daily  clerical  duties  were  over,  and 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  455 

here  I  first  knew  and  often  met  him  :  it  was  exactly  the 
kind  of  neutral  ground  whereon  most  favorably  to  en 
counter  his  special  wit  and  worth  ;  for  he  had  then,  in 
a  great  measure,  cut  loose  from  general  society,  and, 
though  scrupulous  in  his  devoirs  to  fashionable  friends, 
there  was  a  certain  formality  in  his  fulfilment  thereof, 
which  precluded  much  of  the  old  familiar  zest ;  partly, 
indeed,  from  want  of  opportunity,  but  in  a  measure, 
also,  because,  as  the  era  of  New- York  society  had 
widened,  and  new  and  strange  elements  mingled  there 
with,  like  many  others  whose  hair  had  begun  to  silver, 
the  '  favored  guest '  of  the  mothers  was  too  much  in 
relation  with  the  past,  and  too  little  in  personal  sym 
pathy  with  the  present,  to  find  satisfaction  in  the  sphere 
of  their  daughters,  where  his  own  presence  and  pres 
tige  had  become  a  tradition.  Not,  however,  that  there 
was  a  lack  of  interest  or  recognition.  At  '  the  bridal 
and  the  bier,'  and  not  infrequently  at  the  baptismal 
font,  the  poet-friend  was  often  seen;  summoned,  for 
1  auld  lang  syne,'  to  the  family  fete  or  funeral,  a  most 
welcome  presence  there ;  and  coming  thence  with  a 
fresh  vein  of  cordial  or  pensive  reminiscence,  awakened 
by  such  crises  of  domestic  life  ;  yet  invariably  declining 
any  intimate  renewal  of  an  intercourse  which  changed 
circumstances  and  associations  rendered  no  longer 
practicable,  though  none  the  less  '  honored  in  the 
breach '  and  dear  in  the  retrospect  Accordingly  it 
was  in  such  casual  and  cosy  social  nooks  as  our  cafe, 


456  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

and  among  genial  companions,  that  Halleck  then 
sought  and  gave  social  entertainment.  There,  when 
the  mood  was  on  him,  he  would  give  free  vent  to  his 
enthusiasm  and  his  satire,  discuss  the  English  poets 
with  rare  acumen  and  infinite  relish,  quote  them  with 
melodious  emphasis  and  a  voice  tremulous  with  sym 
pathetic  admiration,  so  that  many  a  couplet  and  stanza 
were  thus  set  to  music  in  my  memory  forever.  At  other 
times,  character  was  the  theme  of  delineation  and  criti 
cism,  and  here  came  forth,  with  marvellous  force  and 
freshness,  his  store  of  literary  and  historical  anecdote, 
applied,  with  singular  tact  and  original  interpretation, 
to  whatever  tendency  or  trait  happened  to  be  under 
consideration.  From  a  very  wide  and  desultory  range 
of  reading,  and  a  social  experience  rendered  vivid  by 
quickness  of  sensibility  and  alacrity  of  insight — fused, 
as  it  were,  in  the  alembic  of  a  mind  of  active  intuitions 
— these  gleanings  from  life  and  lore  had  with  him  a  cer 
tain  vitality  and  significance,  which  made  them  impres 
sive.  There  was  no  display  or  pedantry  in  the  process ; 
the  effect  was  exactly  the  reverse  of  that  we  so  often  ex 
perience  at  a  so-called  literary  dinner,  when  '  cut-and- 
dried'  quotations  and  illustrations  are  produced  like 
patterns  from  a  shelf — suggestive  of  college  cramming. 
Halleck's  .mind,  at  such  times,  was  like  a  bubbling 
spring,  when  the  crystal  water  played  forth  spontane 
ously,  bringing  now  grains  of  gold,  and  now  a  flower's 
leaf  to  the  surface.  It  was  this  natural  richness  and 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  457 

spontaneity  that  made  his  talk  so  charming :  he  did 
not  play  the  oracle  ;  he  had  no  '  Orphic  sayings  ;  '  his 
words  were  not  measured  and  meted  by  aphoristic  limi 
tations  ;  he  did  not  give  you  the  idea  of  a  man  who  de 
sired  to  impress  you  or  assert  himself,  whose  conscious 
ness  never  slept,  who,  intrenched  in  self-esteem,  sent 
forth  bullets  to  stun  or  rockets  to  dazzle  you ;  but  the 
prevailing  feeling  you  had  was  a  fellow-feeling,  a  sense 
of  human  as  well  as  intellectual  communion — of  a  man 
first,  a  poet  afterward,  a  brother  always ;  not  discourse, 
disputation,  or  dictation,  but  conversation,  was  his 
function  and  delight — the  mutual  coalescing  of  ideas 
and  feeling  until  they  gushed  in  refreshing  inspiration 
or  exultant  reciprocity. 

"  And  yet,  when  it  came  to  questions,  not  of  taste 
and  personalities,  but  of  principles  and  opinions,  you 
found  yourself  suddenly  far  away  from  this  congenial 
comrade — that  is,  your  creed,  whether  political  or  re 
ligious,  may  have  received  such  an  absolute  defiance, 
as  to  seemingly  preclude  all  chance  of  assimilation ; 
while  the  human  magnetism  of  the  man,  the  laughter 
in  his  eye,  the  sympathetic  ring  of  his  voice,  made  you, 
to  your  own  subsequent  astonishment,  not  only  toler 
ant  of,  but  half  acquiescent  in,  dogmas  and  doctrines 
wholly  antagonistic  to  your  normal  professions  and 
practice ;  and  you  realized  the  fact  that  total  conformity 
in  a  prig  is  not  so  tolerable  as  entire  opposition  in  a 
poet ;  that  is,  that  the  pedantic  dictum  of  a  selfish 
20 


458  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

thinker,  however  logical,  seems  barren,  compared  to 
the  paradoxical  overflow  of  a  candid  and  soulful  nature. 
Halleck  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  '  dragged  along ' 
in  the  procession  of  modern  progress,  like  Lamb ;  he 
left  it,  and  stood,  in  silent  protest,  a  spectator  there 
of;  not  without  recognition  of  the  good  sought  and 
achieved,  or  sympathy  with  the  humane  aspirations 
and  scientific  triumphs  thereof,  but  planted  firmly  on 
the  original  instinctive  and  essential  needs  and  traits 
of  humanity,  which  he  deemed  too  often  overlaid,  ig 
nored,  and  profaned  in  the  rush  and  presumption  bred 
of  material  success  -and  arrogant  intellectual  preten 
sion.  He  pleaded  for  the  sanctions  and  the  safety  of 
Authority  as  an  element  indispensable  to  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  world ;  of  Reverence  as  a  senti 
ment  without  which  the  beauty  of  human  life  was  des 
ecrated  ;  of  Individuality — as  to  rights,  development, 
and  self-respect — constantly  invaded  by  encroachments 
of  what  are  called  popular  principles,  but  which  are 
too  often  social  despotisms.  In  his  isolation,  as  the 
champion  of  such  conservative  convictions,  he  would, 
with  a  kind  of  grim  jest,  overshoot  the  mark,  and  star 
tle  by  extreme  statement.  '  I  believe,'  he  once  said  to 
me,  in  the  heat  of  such  discussions,  '  in  what  is  called 
Providence  in  History;  but. twice,  since  the  world  be 
gan,  that  benign  vigilance  has  slept  on  its  post — once 
when  printing  was  invented,  and  again  at  the  Reforma 
tion.'  He  was  wont  to  declare  himself  a  Romanist, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  459 

though  not,  we  believe,  a  member  of  that  communion; 
for  he  worshipped  and  was  buried  according  to  the  rites 
of  the  Episcopal  Church ;  it  was  not  any  ritualistic 
prejudice  that  induced  this  declaration  of  faith,  but  a 
way  of  embodying  his  conviction  of  the  need  and  the 
auspicious  influence  of  a  church  in  the  old  sense  of  the 
term — a  Spiritual  Power  organized  and  established  on 
fixed  canons  for  the  conversion,  the  solace,  discipline, 
guidance,  and  repose  of  erring,  afflicted,  wayward,  and 
weary  Humanity.  And  so  of  the  press  :  one  who  was 
so  largely  indebted  for  the  most  innocent  delights  of 
his  youth  and  the  most  reliable  consolations  of  his  age, 
to  books,  would  naturally  be  the  last  person  in  the 
world  to  underrate  the  benefactions  of  the  great  civil- 
izer ;  but  his  own  high  sense  of  honor  and  humanity 
made  him  recoil,  with  disgust  and  dismay,  at  the  li 
cense  of  the  press.  '  Tell  me  not,'  he  would  indig 
nantly  exclaim,  '  of  the  blessings  of  a  free  country, 
where  any  unprincipled  blackguard,  with  money  enough 
to  buy  types  and  paper,  can  blacken  my  reputation 
and  ruin  my  fortune,  and  I  have  no  redress  or  adequate 
remedy ! '  In  like  manner  Halleck  has  been  called  a 
monarchist ;  and  naturally  so,  as  he  used  eloquently  to 
descant  on  the  solecisms  in  manners,  the  vulgar  as 
sumptions,  the  official  ignorance,  and  social  incongrui 
ties  born  of,  or  identified  with,  democratic  rule  :  hun 
dreds  of  blatant  republicans  feel  and  think  the  same. 
Halleck  uttered,  without  reserve,  his  keen  perception 


460  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of,  and  protest  against,  the  disgusting  and  degrading 
aspects  of  our  American  civilization ;  but,  withal,  a 
more  fervent  lover  of  his  country  never  breathed  ;  and 
a  better  specimen  of  a  democrat — in  the  sense  of  a 
citizen  who  honors  our  common  nature,  respects  the 
rights  of  others,  and  cordially  fraternizes  with  his  fel 
low-creatures  on  human  grounds  and  without  reference 
to  conventional  distinctions — it  is  impossible  to  find." 

Dr.  Thomas  L.  Nichols,  a  native  of  New  England, 
who  fled  from  the  United  States  at  the  commencement 
of  the  Rebellion,  in  a  work  published  in  London  in 
1864,  entitled  "  Forty  Years  of  American  Life,"  makes 
the  following  allusion  to  Halleck  and  his  favorite  cafe, 
which  he  frequented  for  so  many  years  :  "  One  of  the 
oldest  and  most  esteemed  of  the  poets  of  America  is 
Fitz-Greene  Halleck.  When  I  knew  him  for  some 
years  in  New  York,  he  was  a  kind  of  confidential  secre 
tary  to  the  richest  man  in  America,  John  Jacob  Astor, 
who  also,  at  one  period,  gave  employment  to  another 
and  most  distinguished  and  most  genial  American 
writer,  Washington  Irving.  Irving  and  Halleck  began 
the  world  as  literary  Americans  nearly  half  a  century 
ago,  when  New  York  was  but  a  small  village  compared 
with  its  present  dimensions.  Irving  pursued  a  literary 
career  to  the  end  of  his  life  :  Halleck  wrote  but  little, 
but  that  little  was  full  of  fire,  wit,  and  humor.  I  used 
to  meet  him  almost  every  day  at  a  quiet  little  French 
cafe  in  Warren  Street,  opposite  the  City  Hall.  He  came 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  461 

there  to  take  his  demi  tasse  and  petit  verre,  and  read 
the  evening  papers.  On  the  walls  hung  pictures  of  the 
barricades  of  Paris,  surmounted  by  the  tricolor.  In 
the  rear  were  billiards  clicking  from  morning  till  mid 
night.  At  the  marble-top  tables  Frenchmen,  Germans, 
and  a  few  English  and  Americans  who  had  got  into  Con 
tinental  habits,  played  chess  and  dominoes,  and  sipped 
absinthe,  or,  in  warmer  weather,  iced  claret  punch  and 
orgeat.  It  was  the  stillest  public-house,  I  believe,  in 
New  York.  You  might  sit  for  hours  and  hear  nothing 
but  the  click  of  the  billiard  balls,  the  rattle  of  domi 
noes,  and  the  '  check ! '  of  the  chess-players.  The 
landlord  was  silence  personified.  He  seldom  got  be 
yond  a  grunt.  His  face  beamed  with  good-nature,  but 
it  never  got  further  expression  than  some  obscure  mut- 
terings.  But  Halleck  was  too  thorough  an  American 
not  to  talk,  and  was  full  of  anecdote  and  fun.  He  had 
stories  of  Napoleon  and  Wellington,  both  of  whom 
were  his  favorites.  He  knew  the  present  emperor  when 
he  was  in  New  York,  and  thought  him  '  rather  a  dull 
fellow,'  as,  in  fact,  he  seemed  to  many  persons  who 
did  not  know  what  he  was  up  to.  Halleck  was  a 
bachelor,  living  in  modest  lodgings,  and  avoiding  so 
ciety,  regular  in  his  habits,  even,  it  is  said,  to  the  stated 
number  of  glasses  of  brandy-and- water ;  but  I  have 
met  few  men  who  talked  better,  or  who  lighted  up  in 
conversation  with  a  finer  enthusiasm.  A  wit  and  a  bon 
vivant,  he  was  also  deeply  religious,  and,  though  edu- 


462  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

cated  a  Connecticut  Puritan,  was  a  zealous  Roman 
Catholic,  and  maintained  that  every  man  who  really 
thought  upon  the  matter  must  come  to  the  same  con 
viction.  'You  must  allow,  then,'  I  said,  'that  there 
are  very  few  men  who  really  think  about  it.' 

"'Of  course,'  he  replied,  'we  know  that.  The 
great  masses  of  the  people  of  all  countries  believe  as 
their  fathers  believed  before  them.  Not  one  in  a  thou 
sand  ever  chooses  his  religious  faith.'  " 

"While  on  this  savory  theme  of  the  poet's  haunts, 
when  yet  a  citizen  of  Manhattan,  we  may  draw  upon 
Mr.  Mount's  pleasant  memoranda  for  another  glimpse 
of  the  social  bard.  '  About  fifteen  years  ago,  an  ec 
centric  but  learned  and  estimable  physician  from  Lon 
don,  Doctor  Banks,  who  had  roamed  the  world  with 
more  heart  than  purse,  settled  in  this  city,  lived  a  few 
years,  and  died.  Him  Halleck  knew  and  loved  to 
meet.  He  imported  directly  from  the  London  Docks 
wine,  in  his  estimation  not  to  be  bought  here,  also 
various  edible  dainties.  His  sherry  was  a  favorite  with 
our  poet,  and  often  have  we  three  met  at  the  old  doc 
tor's  office  to  sip  and  talk — there  were  no  coarse  bac 
chanalian  bumpers  there.  This  same  old  Banks  was 
also  a  peripatetic,  and  I  recollect  his  discovery  of  an 
ale-house  in  Brooklyn,  where  the  English  mistress  was 
superior  in  her  choice  of  barn-yards  and  their  cooking. 
Halleck  appreciated  this,  and  told  me  that  he  often 
went  there.  Turning  my  steps  thither  one  day,  I  met 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  463 

Halleck  returning  from  the  spot,  redolent  of  its  cheer. 
Anticipating  my  movement,  he  hailed  me  with  some 
rollicking  intimation  of  the  crisping  duck.  I  often 
endeavored  to  get  him  *to  dine  with  a  few  friends  at  the 
Union  Club  and  elsewhere  ;  but  he  invariably  declined. 
This,  however,  was  in  late  years.  I  fancied  that  he 
was  afraid  of  being  "  called  out" — for  of  this  American 
propensity  he  had  a  horror — or  that  expectation  would 
be  aroused,  and  the  company  disappointed.'  "  l 

The  poet,  conversing  with  me  on  this  subject,  said 
that  there  were  two  reasons  why  he  declined  invita 
tions  :  first,  because  he  could  not  sit  down  and  enjoy 
himself  like  other  men,  but  must  submit  to  be  lionized ; 
secondly,  owing  to  his  defective  hearing,  which  of  late 
years  rendered  it  almost  impossible  for  him  to  under 
stand  any  thing  that  was  said  where  there  were  a  num 
ber  of  persons  carrying  on  conversation. 

Early  in  the  year  1847  there  appeared  in  Phila 
delphia  an  anonymous  brochure,  bearing  the  title, 
"  The  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America,  a  Satire,"  in 
which  I  find  the  following  lines : 

"  Shall  HALLECK  not  one  passing  moment  claim? 
Blest  bard  !  immortal  in  Bozzaris'  name  ! 
No  dream  of  Hope,  so  sacred  and  divine, 
No  theme  didactic,  toilsome,  weary,  thine ; 
Too  much  thy  native  fire  that  thought  to  bear, 
As  that  might  sink  the  hopeless  in  despair ; 

1  E.  A.  Duyckinck,  in  Putnam's  Magazine. 


464  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

But  those  who  bled  and  fell  in  freedom's  cause 
Thy  worthier  theme — attest  it  our  applause  ! 
Nay — though  thy  hero  bravely  fought  and  fell, 
Though  thy  own  music  fall  like  magic  spell ; 
Grant  that  thy  palm  of  praise  is  fairly  won, 
Is  all  achieved  that  mortal  might  have  done  ? 
Call  not  beneath  thee  song  so  just  and  great, 
Which  mightier  bards  in  loftier  verse  relate  ! 
Scorn  the  vile  throng,  as  if  in  vengeance  set 
To  write  for  each  vile  monthly  and  gazette  ; 
Extend  thy  sphere,  thy  native  powers  expand, 
And,  as  confess'd,  immortal  poet  stand." 

The  following  interesting  reminiscences  of  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck  are  from  the  pen  of  Horace  H.  Moore, 
for  many  years  a  bookseller  in  New  York,  and  in  al 
most  daily  intercourse  with  him,  now  connected  with 
the  press  of  San  Francisco:  "About  the  year  1840 
Bartlett  &  Welford  kept  a  bookstore  at  7  Astor  House, 
which  was  at  that  time  a  resort  for  literary  men.  I 
was  then  a  youth  of  nineteen,  learning  the  business  of 
them.  Among  our  most  constant  visitors  were  Mr. 
Halleck  and  S.  E.  D wight,  LL.D.,  grandson  and  author 
of  the  life  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  son  of  President 
Timothy  Dwight.  Having  just  then  lost  his  wife  and 
only  child,  and  being  lonely,  Dr.  Dwight  proposed 
to  me  that,  as  the  store  was  closed  at  dark,  he  and 
myself  should  occupy  it  and  ourselves  in  readhig  each 
evening.  Mr.  Halleck  and  Aaron  H.  Palmer,  as  in- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  465 

timates  both  with  ourselves  and  with  one  another, 
were  invited  to  join  us,  and  did  so  with  more  or  less 
regularity  for  a  period  of  nearly  ten  years.  Palmer, 
Dwight,  and  myself  were  the  more  constant  readers ; 
Mr.  Halleck  usually  arrived  later  in  the  evening,  when, 
by  common  consent,  our  books  were  closed  for  conver 
sation.  Although  Dr.  Dwight  was  distinguished  for 
learning  and  conversational  abilities,  and  Mr.  Palmer 
possessed  a  great  fund  of  information  and  experience, 
the  conversational  powers  and  good-fellowship  of  Mr. 
Halleck  even  surpassed  them  both.  Mr.  Halleck  was 
in  the  almost  daily  habit  of  stopping  in  at  the  store  in 
the  afternoon  and  discussing  the  affairs  of  the  day, 
which  habit  he  continued  also  in  my  store,  under  the 
Merchants'  Exchange,  Hanover  Street,  with  less  regu 
larity,  until  I  closed  my  business  and  came  to  this 
State.  Mr.  Halleck  was  not  at  that  time  a  very  con 
stant  reader,  but  was  in  the  habit  of  making  references 
to  authorities,  either  to  refresh  or  test  his  memory  (of 
the  accuracy  of  which  I  have  seen  many  instances),  or 
for  information  upon  such  subjects  as  might  interest 
him,  or  to  point  out  some  beauty  in  some  favorite 
author,  such  as  Shakespeare,  Goldsmith,  Burns,  Camp 
bell,  etc.,  with  all  of  whom  and  many  others  he  was 
very  familiar. 

"  This  habit  of  Mr.  Halleck,  of  making  friendly  and 
frequent  visits  to  the  bookshops,  was  extended  also  to 
those  of  the  Appletons,  Mr.  Putnam,  and  others.     His 
20* 


466  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

kindness  to  his  contemporary  authors  was  constant, 
especially  when  they  stood  in  need,  one  of  which, 
somewhat  ludicrous,  concerning  the  mad  poet  Mc 
Donald  Clarke,  I  remember.  Clarke  awoke  one  morn 
ing,  about  the  year  1840,  feeling  keenly  the  sensation 
of  hunger,  but  with  no  cash  in  his  pocket.  He  deter 
mined  very  promptly  to  call  upon  Mr.  Halleck  at  his 
lodgings  in  Warren  Street,  and  state  the  case  to  his 
brother-poet  before  he  had  left  his  house  for  the  day, 
which  being  done,  he  received  a  two-and-a-half-dollar 
piece  to  relieve  his  necessities  ;  but  before  getting  to  a 
restaurant  he  met  a  wandering  minstrel,  and  gave  him 
the  gold  as  a  reward  for  playing  some  favorite  song 
for  him.  A  few  minutes  after,  Clarke  came  into  the 
store  under  the  Astor  House,  and  requested  to  be 
allowed  to  conceal  himself  from  Mr.  Halleck,  whom 
he  had  seen  coming,  and  who  had  witnessed  the  whole 
transaction.  Clarke  said  that  the  organ-grinder  ran 
one  way  (supposing  he  had  got  the  gold  by  mistake), 
while  he  ran  another,  to  avoid  Mr.  Halleck.  I  know 
of  other  generous  acts  of  his,  but  doubt  if  he  would,  if 
living,  approve  of  any  special  mention  of  them.  It  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  his  kindness  and  brotherly  love 
extended  to  every  one  of  the  human  family.  The 
young,  however,  were  always  especially  favored  by  him, 
and  his  kindness  to  all  inferiors  in  age  and  intellect  was 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  place  them  immediately  at  ease 
in  his  presence.  This,  however,  sometimes  subjected 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  467 

him  to  impertinences  from  conceited  upstarts,  one  of 
whom,  I  remember,  he  promptly  informed  that  i  he 
had  forgotten  more  than  the  smart  young  gentleman 
ever  knew,'  which  we  all  applauded,  well  knowing  it  to 
be  an  assertion  of  the  truth,  in .  which  he  was  fully 
justified.  It  was  very  rarely  that  he  lost  his  patience, 
and  it  was  his  common  habit,  while  engaged  in  talking, 
to  acknowledge  any  interruption,  or  the  expression  of 
a  bon-mot  or  clever  jest,  by  a  characteristic  bow — to 
the  others  less  worthy  of  notice  he  philosophically 
turned  a  deaf  ear,  and  continued  his  conversation  as  if 
nothing  had  been  said  to  interrupt  him. 

"  Of  his  deportment  and  general  manners,  all  of  his 
friends  will  agree  with  Earl  Carlisle,  that  '  they  have 
never  met  with  a  finer  gentleman,'  for  in  him  was 
combined  an  easy  dignity  with  a  graceful  familiarity. 
We  often  remarked  that  he  rarely  or  never  went  out 
without  an  umbrella  in  his  hand,  which  he  used  as  a 
cane  in  clear  weather.  He  was  a  frequent  attendant  at 
the  old  Park  Theatre,  until  it  was  destroyed  by  fire 
about  1 846,  and  usually  occupied  a  seat  in  the  orchestra 
boxes,  upon  account  of  a  defect  in  his  hearing.  There 
his  quick  eye  and  applauding  voice  often  gave  notice 
that  he  had  detected  in  advance  of  the  dress-circle  the 
symptoms  of  rising  genius  in  many  who  have  since 
become  public  favorites.  He  was  rarely  absent  when 
his  friends  Hackett,  Tyrone  Power,  Simpson,  Blake, 
or  Miss  Cushman  played.  Notwithstanding  his  pre- 


468  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

dilection  for  the  theatre  and  other  amusements  of  the 
town,  he  was  an  early  riser ;  and,  while  in  the  service  of 
Mr.  Astor,  posted  himself  in  the  morning  news  before 
going  to  business  in  Prince  Street.  Although  in  one 
of  the  episodes  in  '  Fanny '  he  jestingly  recommends  a 
cigar  as  an  antidote  to  ennui,  I  have  never  known  him 
to  use  tobacco  in  any  way.  As  he  was  not  opposed  to 
the  moderate  use  of  stimulants,  and  always  neat  in  his 
dress,  it  may  be  that  he  avoided  its  use  as  inconsistent 
with  perfect  cleanliness  of  person.  I  remember  that, 
on  the  morning  after  the  publication  of  the  '  American 
Melodies,'  edited  by  General  George  P.  Morris,  which 
contains  his  celebrated  apostrophe  to  Dr.  Drake,  next 
to  the  poem  is  a  steel  plate  not  very  well  engraved.  It 
represents  a  man  standing  near  a  new-made  grave,  in  a 
pensive  attitude.  Halleck,  seeing  that  the  mourner 
was  intended  to  represent  him,  objected  in  a  most 
whimsical  but  decided  manner  to  the  '  shocking  bad 
hat '  that  he  wore  on  the  occasion.  There  is  in  one  of 
the  late  notices  an  account  of  an  illustrated  copy  of  the 
poems.  I  know  of  another — one  of  the  Appleton  edi 
tions — a  large-paper  copy  of  which  was  secured  and 
illustrated  by  the  late  Edwin  B.  Corwin,  then  (1850) 
paying-teller  in  the  Chemical  Bank.  He  was  a  wag, 
as  well  as  a  zealous  collector  of  prints,  etc.,  and  had 
succeeded  in  illustrating  ( his  Halleck '  most  profusely. 
Among  other  engravings,  he  found  an  old  note  of 
Jacob  Barker's  Exchange  Bank,  signed  by  Mr.  Halleck 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  469 

as  cashier.  This  he  placed  opposite  to  the  passage 
which  reads  '  Bank-notes  to  a  poet's  eyes  are  rarities,' 
etc.  Corwin  invited  Mr.  Halleck  one  evening  to  ex 
amine  the  work,  after  it  was  completed.  I  was  also 
invited  to  enjoy  the  scene,  but  did  not  go.  Mr.  Cor 
win,  however,  informed  me  that  the  effect  of  the  juxta 
position  of  the  bank-note  and  the  disclaimer  fully 
equalled  his  anticipations.  Mr.  Halleck  could  always 
be  amused,  and  would  frequently  laugh  heartily  at  a 
good  joke  even  at  his  own  expense,  while  for  the  feel 
ings  of  others  he  always  was  most  considerate.  A 
delicate  instance,  illustrating  this  sensibility  on  his 
part,  occurred,  I  think,  in  the  winter  of  1844,  upon  the 
return  of  Edwin  Forrest  from  England,  where  he  had 
failed  to  received  that  appreciation  that  he  considered 
due  to  him.  His  friends  gave  him  a  complimentary 
dinner  at  the  New-York  Hotel.  In  the  after-dinner 
speech,  in  which  Mr.  Forrest  recited  his  wrongs  most 
boisterously,  I,  who  had  the  pleasure  of  being  seated 
next  to  Mr.  Halleck,  soon  became  tired  of  the  perform 
ance,  and  proposed  to  Mr.  Halleck  to  accompany  me 
out  of  the  dining-hall,  but  his  fine  sense  of  courtesy 
would  not  allow  him  to  do  so,  though  I  made  a  pretty 
prompt  exit. 

"His  poetical  admiration  for  chivalry,  its  days  and 
ways,  may  be  illustrated  by  the  account  that  he  gave 
me  of  the  ceremony  on  the  occasion  of  his  becoming  a 
Freemason.  He  said  that  when  touched  upon  the 


470 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


head  and  knighted  by  the  Grand-Master,  who  saluted 
him  with  these  words,  '  Arise,  Sir  Fitz-Greene,'  he 
felt  like  a  knight  of  old  time  newly  anointed  by  his 
sovereign.  I  have  always  attributed  his  admiration  for 
the  regal  splendor  of  kings  and  courts,  and  the  im 
pressive  and  unvarying  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  to  the  same  sentiment.  I  regret  not  being  able 
to  give  you  any  facts  of  importance  concerning  his 
visit  to  Europe.  He  was  not,  like  the  hero  at  the 
commencement  of  the  '  Sentimental  Journey,'  in  the 
habit  of  asserting  that  '  they  do  things  differently  in 
France. ' 

"  Mr.  Halleck  once  told  me  that  when  Mr.  Astor 
engaged  him  in  the  capacity  of  confidential  clerk,  he 
cautioned  him  not  to  talk  of  his  (Mr.  Astor's)  wealth, 
as  a  former  clerk  had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing,  to 
which  caution  Mr.  Halleck  replied  that  'it  could  not 
be  important,  for,  if  he  told  inquirers  the  truth,  those 
who  considered  Mr.  Astor  very  rich  would  think  he  was 
under-estimating  his  wealth,  and  those  who  thought 
otherwise  that  he  was  exaggerating  it.'  Mr.  Halleck 
said  that  Mr.  Astor  remarked  that  he  believed  he  was 
right,  and  it  would  make  no  difference  what  he  might 
say. 

"  Though  among  his  more  intimate  friends  his  ge 
niality  was  only  equalled  by  his  modesty,  once,  upon 
my  expressing  admiration  for  his  poetry,  he  asserted 
that  he  had  never  written  any  thing  worth  being  print- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^l 

ed.  I  immediately  quoted  'Marco  Bozzaris'  as  an 
evidence  to  the  contrary,  and  was  about  to  continue 
the  list,  with  arguments,  when  he  gracefully  admitted 
that  readers  must  be  the  judges  of  what  pleases  them 
best  in  literature." 

Saint  Valentine's  Day,  1847,  brought,  among  other 
offerings,  the  following  tributes  from  two  of  the  fairest 
and  sweetest  of  American  singers.  The  first  is  from 
the  pen  of  Mrs.  Botta,  then  Miss  Anne  C.  Lynch : 

I  see  the  sons  of  Genius  rise, 

The  nobles  of  our  land, 
And  foremost  in  the  gathering  ranks 

I  see  the  poet-band. 

That  priesthood  of  the  Beautiful, 

To  whom  alone  'tis  given 
To  lift  our  spirits  from  the  dust, 

Back  to  their  native  heaven. 

But  there  is  one  amid  the  throng 
Not  passed  his  manhood's  prime, 

The  laurel-wreath  upon  his  brow, 
Has  greener  grown  with  time. 

And  in  his  eye  yet  glows  the  light 

Of  the  celestial  fire, 
But  cast  beside  him  on  the  earth 

Is  his  neglected  lyre. 


472  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OP 

The  lyre  whose  high  heroic  notes 
A  thousand  hearts  have  stirred 

Lies  mute — the  skilful  hand  no  more 
Awakes  one  slumbering  chord. 

O  poet,  rouse  thee  from  thy  dreams  ! 

Wake  from  thy  voiceless  slumbers, 
And  once  again  give  to  the  breeze 

The  music  of  thy  numbers. 

Sing  !  for  our  country  claims  her  bards, 

She  listens  for  thy  strains  ; 
Sing !  for  upon  our  jarring  earth 

Too  much  of  discord  reigns. 

The  following  verses,  a  fair  correspondent  informs 
me,  were  written  by  Mrs.  Lippincott,  better  known  to 
the  public  by  her  nom  de  plume  of  "  Grace  Green 
wood  :  " 

Must  silence  rest  upon  thy  lyre — 
And  will  thy  hand  awake  it  never  ? 

And  must  the  great  deeps  of  thy  soul 
Remain  becalmed  forever  ? 

Oh,  for  a  midnight  storm  of  song  ! 

The  peal  of  arms,  the  blaze  of  glory — 
Like  that  which  once  aroused  a  world — 

Thy  Grecian  hero's  story  ! 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  473 

Oh,  for  a  generous  burst  of  song  ! 

Like  that  which  once  new  splendor  shed 
Round  the  "  pilgrim  shrine  "  of  a  poet's  grave, 

And  deified  the  dead  ! 

Oh,  for  a  mirth-born  "  Fanny,"  sent 

That  troubled  lives,  half  unawares, 
Might  take  in  dancing  shapes  of  joy, 

And  banish  spectre  cares  ! 

Oh,  for  a  lay  to  crown  the  brave, 

Or  rosy  wreaths  of  love  to  twine, 
To  ring  joy's  bells,  or  start  griefs  tear, 

If  only  it  be  thine! 

Be  hero-bard — be  minstrel  gay — 

Thy  Song,  if  of  thy  soul  a  part, 
Must  bear  a  charmed  life,  and  live 

Within  thy  country's  heart. 

On  the  subject,  says  Mr.  Gowans,  of  compliments 
paid  to  Mr.  Halleck  for  poetical  talent,  he  remarked 
"  that  they  were  made  by  those  who  were  ignorant, 
or  who  had  a  desire  to  please  or  flatter,  or  per 
haps,  a  combination  of  all  these  motives  ;  they  were  a 
sad  penalty  which  every  one  had  to  pay  who  thrust 
themselves  upon  public  notice.  As  a  general  thing 
they  are  devoid  of  sincerity,  and  rather  offensive  than 
pleasing.  The  practice  brings  to  my  mind  the  condi 
tion  of  one  who  has  had  the  misfortune  to  have  lost  a 


474  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

limb  or  an  eye.  When  he  meets  with  old  acquaint 
ances,  they  immediately  commence  condoling  with 
him  and  discussing  the  nature  of  his  loss,  and  not  un- 
frequently  demanding  a  history  of  the  whole  catastro 
phe,  and  thus  by  the  kindness  of  his  friends  suffers  a 
double  punishment  by  being  constantly  brought  in 
mind  of  his  dilapidated  condition.  In  a  like  manner 
does  an  author  suffer.  All  who  desire  the  ear  of 
the  public  must  pay  a  penalty  more  or  less  ;  there 
is  no  sweet  without  a  bitter,  no  excessive  joy  but 
some  sorrow ;  the  day  of  adversity  is  set  over  against 
the  day  of  prosperity ;  but  there  is  no  general  rule 
without  exception  ;  and,  in  my  bagful  of  compliments, 
I  cherish  one  which  comes  under  that  rule,  which, 
when  I  reflect  upon  it,  affords  me  real  pleasure,  as 
it  did  then.  One  warm  summer's  day,  a  young  man 
came  into  the  office  in  Prince  Street,  with  a  coun 
tenance  glowing  with  ardor,  innocence,  and  honesty, 
and  his  eyes  beaming  with  enthusiastic  sincerity,  he 
said,  'Is  Mr.  Halleck  to  be  found  here?'  I  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  when  he  continued,  with  evident  in 
creased  emotion,  '  Could  I  see  him  ? '  '  You  see  him 
now,'  I  replied.  He  grasped  me  by  the  hand  with  a 
hearty  vigorousness,  that  added  to  my  conviction  of  his 
sincerity.  Said  he :  'I  am  happy,  most  happy,  in 
having  had  the  pleasure  at  last  of  seeing  one  whose 
poems  have  afforded  me  no  ordinary  gratification  and 
delight.  I  have  wished,  I  have  longed,  I  have  sighed 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  475 

to  see  you,  and  I  have  dreamt  that  I  have  seen  you, 
but  now  I  behold  you  with  mine  own  eyes.  God  bless 
you  forever  and  ever.  I  have  come  eleven  hundred 
miles — all  the  way  from  the  banks  of  the  Miami,  in 
Ohio — for  that  purpose,  and  I  have  been  compensated 
for  my  pains.'  " 


CHAPTER    VIII. 
1848-1857. 

Death  of  Astor. — Illustrated  Edition  of  Poems. — Halleck's  Acquaintances. 
—Retires  to  Guilford.— Notice  of  the  Poet.— Halleck  on  Laughter.— 
Anecdote.— Mrs.  Sigourney  to  the  Poet— A  New  Poem.— The  Cooper 
Monument.— Dinner  at  the  Century  Club.— Lines  to  Clark.— Portrait 
for  Mr.  Winthrop. — Breakfast  with  the  Poet. — Thackeray. — An  amus 
ing  Letter. — St.  Paul's  and  Trinity  Churchyards. 

|HE  rich  merchant,  John  Jacob  Astor,  died  March 
29,  1848,  and,  when  his  will  was  published  in 
a  New-York  paper  a  few  days  after,  it  appeared  that 
he  had  left  a  small  legacy  to  the  poet,  making  him 
"  passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a  year."  Astor  says 
in  his  will:  "I  give  to  my  friend  Fitz-Greene  Halleck 
an  annuity  of  two  hundred  dollars,  commencing  at  my 
decease,  and  payable  half-yearly  for  his  life,  to  be 
secured  by  setting  apart  so  much  of  my  personal  estate 
as  may  be  necessary ;  which  I  intend  as  a  mark  of  re 
gard  for  Mr.  Halleck."  He  was  also  named  in  the  will 
as  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Astor  Library,  a  position 
which  the  poet  subsequently  resigned,  recommending 
his  friend  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor,  of  Grace  Church, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  477 

as  his  successor.  To  the  moderate  sum  bequeathed  to 
Halleck  by  the  rich  merchant,  a  gift  of  ten  thousand 
dollars  was  subsequently  added  by  his  son,  William  B. 
Astor. 

When  a  friend  asked  the  poet's  fellow-clerk,  the 
late  Daniel  Embury,  why  it  was  that  Mr.  Astor  had 
left  him  so  small  a  bequest,  he  replied :  "  Halleck  often 
used  to  joke  Mr.  Astor  about  his  accumulating  income, 
and  perhaps  rather  rashly  said,  '  Mr.  Astor,  of  what 
use  is  all  this  money  to  you  ?  I  would  be  content  to 
live  upon  a  couple  of  hundreds  a  year  for  the  rest  of 
my  life  if  I  were  only  sure  of  it.'  The  old  man  remem 
bered  that,"  said  Mr.  Embury,  "  and,  with  a  bitter 
satire,  reminded  Halleck  of  it  in  his  will."  One  of  the 
daily  journals,  commenting  on  the  smallness  of  the 
sum,  indicated  the  scale  of  generosity  appropriate  on 
the  part  of  a  Croesus  toward  a  bard,  which  aroused  the 
poet's  indignation,  and  he  said :  "  Mr.  Astor  treated 
me  like  a  gentleman.  For  years  he  remunerated  me 
handsomely  for  my  services,  and  now  he  pays  me  the 
compliment  of  remembering  me  as  a  friend  in  his  will 
by  a  trusteeship  and  a  bequest.  I  have  only  feelings 
of  gratitude." 

Apropos  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  the  late  Henry  H. 
Elliot  told  me  a  story  of  a  gentleman  with  whom  the 
poet  was  well  acquainted,  who  applied  to  the  rich  mer 
chant  for  a  subscription  to  some  charitable  object. 
Mr.  Astor,  who  was  probably  continually  appealed  to, 


478  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

made  a  remark  to  the  effect  that  he  approved  of  the 
object,  but  at  present  had  no  money,  when  Halleck 
jestingly  said,  "Well,  Mr.  Astor,  if  you  are  out  of 
money,  I'll  indorse  your  note  for  a  few  hundred  dol 
lars  ! " 

In  the  year  1848  there  was  published  by  the  Ap- 
pletons  a  superb  edition  of  Halleck's  poems,  with  nu 
merous  elegant  steel  illustrations  from  paintings  by 
Durand,  Edmonds,  Huntington,  and  Leutze,  and  an 
admirable  likeness  of  the  author,  engraved  by  Cheney, 
after  a  portrait  painted  the  year  previous  for  the  pub 
lishers  by  the  late  Charles  Loring  Elliott.  This  beau 
tiful  picture  is,  with  the  exception  of  Henry  Inman's, 
the  best  likeness  we  have  of  the  poet.  Elliott  told  me 
that  Miss  Sedgwick  and  Mrs.  Kirkland  would  call  at 
his  studio  and  chat  with  Halleck  while  he  was  sit 
ting  for  his  portrait,  and  that  he  had  rarely,  if  ever, 
enjoyed  a  greater  intellectual  treat  than  in  listening  to 
the  conversation  of  these  gifted  friends. 

In  the  spring  of  1849,  Mr.  Halleck  retired  from  the 
office  of  Mr.  Astor  in  Prince  Street,  where  he  had  been 
employed  for  seventeen  years,  and  took  up  his  resi 
dence  in  Guilford,  a  quiet,  snug  place  for  a  poet's  re 
treat — about  midway  between  New  London  and  New 
Haven,  and  in  close  proximity  to  Long-Island  Sound. 
Mr.  Astor  informs  me  that  "  Halleck  was  an  excellent 
man  of  business — rapid,  and  always  reliable  in  figures, 
with  an  excellent  memory  for  all  transactions  that  came 


FITZ-dREENE  HALLECK.  479 

under  his  notice.  He  was  a  favorite  with  all  who  were 
employed  in  the  office,  and  was  regular  in  his  attend 
ance — reaching  the  counting-room  at  eight  o'clock,  or 
very  soon  after,  and  always  leaving  precisely  at  two 
o'clock."  During  the  years  that  he  was  in  Prince 
Street,  his  desk  stood  near  the  east  front  window,  and 
to  certain  huge  folios,  recording  the  transactions  of  the 
largest  real-estate  owner  in  the  land,  Halleck  might 
have  referred  an  inquirer  for  his  "writings,"  as  Charles 
Lamb  did,  when  he  said,  "  My  works  are  certain 
ledgers  in  the  India  House."  As  the  poet  left  Guilford 
in  the  month  of  May,  1811,  so,  after  a  residence  of 
thirty-eight  years,  he  departed  from  New  York,  with 
out  leaving  an  enemy  behind  him. 

Notwithstanding  Halleck's  innate  modesty,  and  his 
unwillingness  to  be  lionized,  he  had,  long  before  the 
date  of  the  publication,  in  1827,  of  the  first  editions  of 
his  poems,  become  one  of  the  literary  notabilities  of  the 
day,  and  his  charming  manners  and  sprightly  conversa 
tion,  interspersed  with  lively  sallies  of  wit  and  anecdote, 
made  him  much  sought  after  by  the  most  intellectual 
society  of  New  York.  The  poet  was  really  worshipped 
by  many  superior  women  of  the  finest  qualities,  over 
whom  he  exercised  a  singular  and  irresistible  fascina 
tion.  A  lady,  who  by  birth  and  education  had  few  if 
any  superiors  in  the  city,  said  :  "  If  I  were  on  my  way 
to  church  to  be  married,  yes,  even  if  I  were  walking  up 
the  aisle,  and  Halleck  were  to  offer  himself,  Pd  leave 


480  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

the  man  I  had  promised  to  marry,  and  take  him  /  " 
He  was  never,  however,  what  is  known  as  a  society 
man.  He  could  rarely  be  prevailed  upon  to  go  to 
evening  parties,  and  it  was  always  considered  an 
achievement  to  obtain  the  poet's  promise  to  be  one  of 
the  company  on  such  occasions.  When  he  did  appear, 
his  presence  neyer  failed  to  afford  lively  satisfaction  to 
those  who  were  present.  He  was  always  the  lion  of 
the  evening,  unless  some  distinguished  stranger  chanced 
to  be  among  the  company,  and  he  usually  retired  at  an 
early  hour,  disappearing,  to  quote  a  friend's  words, 
"in  a  blaze  of  glory."  No  eminent  visitor  came  to 
New  York  that  Mr.  Halleck  was  not  asked  to  meet  at 
the  dinners  and  other  entertainments  prepared  for 
him.  He  was  invited  to  all  such  dinners  as  Dr. 
Johnson  would  have  thought  "  worth  being  asked  to." 
Halleck  was  well  acquainted  with  Napoleon's  brother 
Joseph,  ex-King  of  Spain,  who  resided  at  Bordentown, 
New  Jersey ;  with  Lafayette,  who  revisited  this  coun 
try  in  1824,  and  with  the  Prince  of  Saxe- Weimar,  who 
came  a  year  later ;  with  the  authoresses  Miss  Mitford, 
Miss  Martineau,  and  Mrs.  Jamieson ;  with  Lord  Stanley 
and  Lord  Morpeth,  now  the  Earl  of  Carlisle,  who  con 
sidered  him  one  of  the  most  agreeable  men  he  had  ever 
met.  Thackeray,  when  in  this  country,  requested  as  a 
particular  favor,  that  he  might  be  seated  next  to  him  at 
a  dinner  to  which  they  were  invited.  Among  the  dis 
tinguished  actors  who  visited  the  United  States  during 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  481 

his  residence  in  New  York,  he  was  a  universal  favorite. 
The  Keans,  father  and  son,  the  elder  and  younger 
Matthews,  Macready,  the  elder  Booth,  James  W.  Wai- 
lack  Senior,  Burton,  Mitchell,  Cooper,  and  Tyrone 
Power,  all  knew  and  loved  the  man.  Halleck's  remi 
niscences  of  these  distinguished  members  of  the  his 
trionic  profession,  and  of  many  other  less  eminent 
actors,  such  as  his  friends  Miss  Ellen  Tree,  Mrs.  Kem- 
ble,  and  Miss  Cushman,  Barnes,  Bass,  Price,  and 
Simpson,  would  have  made  a  most  charming  volume, 
if  the  poet  could  have  been  persuaded  to  put  them  on 
record. 

During  the  seventeen  years  that  Mr.  Halleck  was 
with  the  Astors,  he  was  never  absent  from  business  for 
many  days  at  a  time,  contenting  himself  with  brief 
visits  to  the  country,  in  lieu  of  taking  a  fortnight's  va 
cation,  as  was  the  case  with  the  other  clerks. 

The  spacious  and  elegant  country-seat  of  John  R. 
Livingston,  where  Washington  Irving,  the  Prince  of 
Saxe- Weimar,  and  many  other  notabilities  were  enter 
tained,  was  one  of  Halleck's  Hudson  River  resorts.  It 
is  this  gentleman  who  figures  in  t(  The  Dinner-Party," 
— one  of  the  "Croakers  " — as  Johnny  R .  The  mag 
nificent  estate  of  Dr.  Hosack,  at  Hyde  Park,  the  sum 
mer  residence  of  Jacob  Harvey,  near  that  pretty  village 
• — a  most  gay  and  hospitable  neighborhood  in  by-gone 
days — and  the  country-seat  of  Mr.  Holbrook,  a  few 
miles  above  Poughkeepsie,  were  also  honored  by  occa- 
21 


482  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

sional  visits  from  the  poet.  To  Rokeby,  the  residence 
of  William  B.  Astor,  Mr.  Halleck  would  often  go  dur 
ing  the  summer  months  for  a  few  days'  recreation. 
Another  of  his  numerous  resorts  was  the  residence  of 
Van  Brugh  Livingston,  at  Greenburg,  in  Westchester 
County. 

Before  returning  to  his  native  town  to  spend  the 
closing  years  of  his  life,  he  meditated  another  visit  to 
Europe,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  procure  a  passport, 
which  was  the  last  document  signed  by  James  Buchanan 
as  Secretary  of  State,  before  retiring  from  office,  March 
7,  1849.  Abandoning  his  proposed  tour  abroad,  the 
poet  was  for  a  time  undecided  between  his  fondly-loved 
Fort  Lee  and  Guilford,  as  his  future  home,  but  eventu 
ally  decided  upon  the  latter  place,  and  in  June  took  up 
his  residence  with  Miss  Halleck,  in  the  ancient  house 
represented  on  the  vignette  title-page  to  this  volume. 
It  is  one  of  the  oldest  wooden  houses  in  the  town,  and 
is  surrounded  by  a  spacious  veranda,  overlooking  the 
elm-environed  public  square.  With  the  visitors  at 
"  Hunt's  Point"  and  "  Sachem's  Head,"  two  fashion 
able  summer  resorts  near  Guilford,  as  well  as  with  his 
fellow-townsmen,  Halleck  became  a  great  favorite,  al 
ways  having  a  kind  word  of  salutation  for  every  one  he 
met,  and  a  capital  story  to  tell  to  those  who,  like  him 
self,  had  leisure  and  taste  to  appreciate  it. 

A  writer  in  Eraser's  Magazine,  in  a  long  article 
upon  the  poets  and  poetry  of  America,  in  which  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  483 

subject  is  treated  with  more  than  the  customary  civility 
of  English  criticism  upon  this  subject  in  by-gone  days, 
after  alluding  to  the  "  Croakers"  and  "  Fanny,"  re 
marks  :  "In  Halleck's  subsequent  productions  the 
influence  of  Campbell  is  more  perceptible  than  that  of 
Byron,  and  with  manifest  advantage.  It  may  be  said 
of  his  compositions,  as  it  can  be  affirmed  of  few  Amer 
ican  verses,  that  they  have  a  real  innate  harmony, 
something  not  dependent  on  the  number  of  syllables  in 
each  line,  or  capable  of  being  dissected  out  into  feet, 
but  growing  in  them,  as  it  were,  and  created  by  the 
fine  ear  of  the  writer.  Their  sentiments,  too,  are 
exalted  and  ennobling ;  eminently  genial  and  honest, 
they  stamp  the  author  for  a  good  man  and  true — Na 
ture's  aristocracy.  *  *  *  For  some  unexplained 
reason,  Halleck  has  not  written,  or,  at  least,  not  pub 
lished,  any  thing  new  for  several  years,  though  fre 
quently  solicited  to  do  so,  for  he  is  a  great  favorite 
with  his  countrymen,  especially  New-Yorkers.  His 
time,  however,  has  been  by  no  means  passed  in  idle 
ness.  Fashionable  as  writing  is  in  America,  it  is  not 
considered  desirable,  or,  indeed,  altogether  reputable, 
that  the  poet  should  be  only  a  poet.  Halleck  has  been 
in  business  most  of  his  life,  and  was  lately  head-clerk 
of  the  wealthy  merchant,  John  Jacob  Astor,  who  left 
him  an  annuity.  This  was  increased  by  Mr.  Astor's 
son  and  heir ;  so  that  between  the  two  there  is  a  chance 
of  the  poet's  being  enabled  to  '  meditate  the  muse '  for 


484  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

the  remainder  of  his  days,  free  from  all  distractions  of 
business." 

Halleck,  on  his  visits  to  New  York,  made  his  head 
quarters  at  Bixby's  Hotel,  on  the  corner  of  Broadway 
and  Park  Place,  a  place  of  resort  with  authors,  pub 
lishers,  and  booksellers.  The  proprietor  had  been  in 
the  trade  originally,  and  was  known  to  Cooper,  the 
novelist,  who  always,  when  in  New  York,  sojourned 
there,  and  was  the  means  of  introducing  Halleck  into 
the  same  comfortable  inn.  In  1858  Bixby's  was  re 
moved  to  the  buildings  in  Broadway  adjoining  Judge 
Roosevelt's  residence,  where  the  poet  followed  his  for 
tunes  until  1862,  when  Bixby  abandoned  the  business; 
after  which  date  Mr.  Halleck  went  to  the  St.  Denis,  on 
the  corner  of  Eleventh  Street  and  Broadway,  where,  as 
he  once  remarked  to  the  writer,  they  charged  him  as 
many  dollars  per  day  as  he  paid  when  a  young  man 
for  board  per  week.  It  was  at  Bixby's,  in  1851,  that  I 
had  the  honor  of  being  first  presented  to  the  poet  by 
the  late  Charles  M.  Leupp,  and  the  recollection  is  still 
fresh  in  my  mind  of  the  mingled  awe  and  admiration 
with  which  I  gazed  upon  the  author  of  lines  I  revered 
only  less  than  those  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  and 
how  quickly  he  placed  me  at  my  ease  and  won  my  heart 
by  his  gracious  and  genial  manner.  "  Are  you  addicted 
to  the  unprofitable  art  of  rhyming,  like  my  good  friend 
your  father  and  myself? "  is  the  only  remark  made 
to  me  by  the  poet  that  I  can  recall  at  this  distant  day. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  485 

Halleck  never  affected  any  spurious  gravity.  Nei 
ther  did  he  ever,  as  Hood  amusingly  said,  "  act  the 
Grand  Seignior.  He  did  not  exact  that  copy-book  re 
spect  which  some  asinine  persons  would  fain  command 
on  account  of  the  mere  length  of  their  years ;  as  if, 
forsooth,  what  is  bad  in  itself  could  be  the  better  for 
keeping;  as  if  intellects  already  mothery  got  any  thing 
but  grandmothery  by  lapse  of  time  1  " 

The  poet  was  not  of  the  nil  admirari  order,  who 
allow  nothing  to  ruffle  their  serenity.  His  animated 
countenance  in  conversation  beamed  with  smiles ;  and 
I  well  remember  his  quoting  two  sentences  from  Sterne 
and  Dryden.  He  said:  "As  Sterne  remarks,  '  I  am 
persuaded  that  every  time  a  man  smiles — but  much 
more  so  when  he  laughs — it  adds  something  to  this 
fragment  of  life ; '  and  honest  old  John  Dryden,  you  will 
remember,  gives  us  similar  testimony  when  he  says,  '  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  laugh,  at  any  rate ;  and  if  a  straw 
can  tickle  a  man,  it  is  an  instrument  of  happiness.'  " 

Halleck  was  not  one  of  those  who  believed  that  the 
effect  of  a  story  is  increased  by  the  narrator  not  join 
ing  in  the  laugh,  but  thought  with  Charles  Lamb, 
who  declares  the  axiom,  "that  a  man  must  not  laugh 
at  his  own  joke,"  to  be  a  popular  fallacy,  and  "  the 
severest  exaction  surely  ever  intended  upon  the  self- 
denial  of  poor  human  nature.  This  is,"  Elia  con 
tinues,  "  to  expect  a  gentleman  to  give  a  treat  without 
partaking  of  it;  to  sit  esurient  at  his  own  table  and 


486  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

commend  the  flavor  of  his  venison,  upon  the  absurd 
strength  of  his  never  touching  it  himself." 

Genio  C.  Scott,  a  gentleman  who  was  for  many 
years  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Halleck,  has  furnished 
me  with  the  following  amusing  anecdote  of  the  poet : 
"  After  Mr.  Halleck  made  his  permanent  residence  in 
the  State  of  Connecticut  he  used  to  visit  the  metropolis 
occasionally,  and  stop  at  Bixby's  Hotel,  corner  of 
Broadway  and  Park  Place.  I  lodged  there  for  several 
years ;  and,  as  I  had  been  acquainted  with  Mr.  Halleck 
for  a  considerable  period,  on  evenings  at  Bixby's  we 
reviewed  old  associates  and  circumstances,  and  his  bril 
liant  conversational  powers  soon  made  him  the  cyno 
sure  of  a  rare  audience,  among  whom  were  many  men 
of  attainments — authors  and  litterateurs,  as  well  as 
men  of  genius  and  science.  Halleck's  word-painting 
was  far  more  vividly  done  in  conversation  than  in 
verse;  and  no  one  of  his  acquaintances  denied  his 
redundancy  of  language  and  exhaustless  store  of  apho 
rism,  which,  with  his  gems  of  original  ideas,  enabled 
him  to  throw  off  sentence  after  sentence,  as  brilliant  as 
diamonds,  surrounding  opalescent  ideas  of  a  kindly 
sentiment  for  every  son  and  daughter  of  Adam.  It 
was  his  pleasure,  while  on  those  semi-occasional  visits 
to  New  York,  to  see  the  places  of  his  early  manhood, 
and  witness  the  changes  which  had  been  and  were 
taking  place  in  the  moral  physiognomy  of  those  quar 
ters.  Like  Goldsmith,  he  had  a  taste  for  being  some- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  487 

times  alone  and  unobserved,  while  evolving  from  the 
present  and  past  the  probable  future  of  New  York. 
This  penchant  led  him  sometimes  to  singular  places ; 
and,  like  Goldsmith  at  the  place  where  he  made  ac 
quaintance  with  his  '  Disabled  Soldier,'  he  did  not 
shun  the  haunts  of  men  among  '  publicans  and  sin 
ners.'  He  was,  therefore,  one  evening  passing  up 
Chatham  Street,  when  he  heard  some  good  music  at  a 
'  Free  and  Easy '  over  a  German  tavern,  and  a  sign  of 
invitation  at  the  door.  He  therefore  entered  the  room 
of  the  society,  and  quietly  took  a  seat  and  called  for  a 
mug  of  beer,  thinking  that  no  one  present  knew  him, 
and  that  he  could  unobtrusively  enjoy  an  hour  of  music 
and  German  anecdote.  He  sat  for  half  an  hour  very 
much  interested,  when  the  president  of  the  society 
arose,  and  with  his  gavel  called  the  house  to  order, 
stating,  '  Gentlemen,  please  come  to  order.  We  are 
honored  to-night  by  the  presence  of  a  distinguished 
gentleman,  who  is  no  less  than  Fitz-Greene  Halleck, 
the  greatest  poet  in  America.  I  therefore  move  that 
he  be  made  an  honorary  member  of  our  society,  and 
that  he  be  invited  to  a  seat  at  the  right  of  the  president 
for  this  evening.  Those  in  favor  please  signify  by 
saying  ay.'  The  spontaneous  burst  of  welcome  took 
our  friend  quite  aback,  as  the  president  named  a  com 
mittee  of  two  to  wait  upon  Mr.  Halleck  to  the  seat  of 
honor;  but,  before  being  seated,  he  returned  thanks 
in  modest  terms,  and  retired  so  soon  as  the  meeting 


488  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

adjourned,  but  he  was  never  seen  there  again.  Hal- 
leek  shunned  notoriety,  loved  the  world  for  containing 
the  small  circle  of  friends  that  he  loved,  and  to  enable 
him  to  explore,  unobserved,  the  farcical  and  melo 
dramatic  effects  as  enacted  on  the  busy  stage  of  real 
life." 

It  was  Lord  Byron's  opinion  that  a  poet  is  always  to 
be  ranked  according  to  his  execution,  and  not  accord 
ing  to  his  branch  of  the  art.  "  The  poet  who  creates 
best,"  said  he,  "  is  the  highest,  whatever  his  depart 
ment,  and  will  ever  be  so  rated  in  the  world's  esteem." 
I  have  no  doubt  of  the  justness  of  that  remark.  It  is 
the  only  principle  from  which  sound  criticism  can  pro 
ceed,  and  upon  this  basis  the  reputations  of  the  poet 
have  been  made  up.  Considered  in  this  light,  Mr.  Hal- 
leek  must  be  pronounced  not  merely  one  of  the  chief 
ornaments  of  our  literature,  but  one  of  the  great  mas 
ters  in  a  language  classical  and  immortal,  for  the  pro 
ductions  of  genius  which  have  illustrated  and  enlarged 
its  capacities.  "  There  are  in  his  compositions  an  essen 
tial  pervading  grace,  a  natural  brilliancy  of  wit,  a  free 
dom,  yet  refinement,  of  sentiment,  a  sparkling  flow  of 
fancy,  and  a  power  of  personification,  combined  with 
such  high  and  careful  finish,  and  such  exquisite  nicety 
of  taste,  that  the  larger  part  of  them  must  be  pro 
nounced  models  almost  faultless  in  the  classes  to  which 
they  belong.  They  appear  to  me  to  show  a  genuine 
insight  into  the  principles  of  art  and  a  fine  use  of  its 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  489 

resources ;  and,  after  all  that  has  been  said  and  written 
about  nature,  strength,  and  originality,  the  true  secret 
of  fame,  the  real  magic  of  genius,  is  not  force,  not  pas 
sion,  not  novelty,  but  art.  Look  all  through  Milton ; 
look  at  the  best  passages  of  Shakespeare  ;  look  at  the 
monuments,  '  all  Greek  and  glorious,'  which  have 
come  down  to  us  from  ancient  times,  what  strikes  us 
principally,  and  it  might  almost  be  said  only,  is  the 
wonderfully  artificial  character  of  their  composition ;  it 
is  the  principle  of  their  immortality,  and  without  it  no 
poem  can  be  long-lived.  It  may  be  easy  to  acquire 
popularity  j  and  easy  to  display  art  in  writing,  but  he, 
who  obtains  popularity  by  the  means  and  employment 
of  careful,  elaborate  art,  may  be  confident  that  his 
reputation  is  fixed  upon  a  sure  basis.  This — for  his 
careless  playing  with  the  muse,  by  which  at  one  time 
he  kept  the  town  alive,  is  scarcely  remembered  now — 
this,  it  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Halleck,  Mr.  Bryant,  and 
Mr.  Poe  have  done  above  all  our  authors."  l 

In  the  month  of  March,  1852,  a  movement  was  set 
on  foot  in  New  York,  looking  to  the  erection,  in  one  of 
the  public  squares,  of  a  colossal  statue  of  James  Feni- 
more  Cooper.  An  association  was  formed,  with. Wash 
ington  Irving  for  president,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  and 
Rufus  W.  Griswold  secretaries,  and  Verplanck,  Pauld- 
ing,  Bryant,  Bancroft,  and  other  literary  gentlemen  as 
members  of  the  committee.  Halleck  took  a  deep  in- 

1  The  International  Magazine,  vol.  iii.,  1851. 
21* 


4go  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

terest  in  the  project,  which,  however,  failed  of  success, 
and  the  funds  collected  for  the  statue  were  ultimately 
devoted  to  the  erection  of  an  appropriate  monument 
over  the  distinguished  author's  grave  at  Cooperstown. 
Halleck  was  warmly  attached  to  the  gifted  novelist, 
with  whom  he  became  acquainted  in  the  year  1815, 
and  at  whose  house,  in  New  York,  he  was  often  enter 
tained.  The  poet  had  many  amusing  anecdotes  to  re 
late  of  his  sturdy  friend,  with  whom  he  had  in  early 
life  been  very  intimate,  and  on  one  occasion,  at  my  so 
licitation,  promised  he  would  prepare  some  reminis 
cences  of  Cooper  for  publication ;  but,  like  other  simi 
lar  promises,  it  remained  unfulfilled. 

To  the  May  number  of  the  Knickerbocker  Magazine 
for  the  year  1852,  Mr.  Halleck  contributed  an  "Ex 
tract  from  an  Unpublished  Poem,"  being  the  second 
part,  consisting  of  twenty-five  stanzas  of  "  Connecticut." 
His  poet-friend,  George  Hill,  tells  me  that  Halleck 
composed  this  portion  of  the  poem  during  his  walks  in 
and  around  Guilford,  that  he  would  repeat  the  lines 
aloud,  and  as  he  occasionally  emphasized  a  line  by 
swinging  his  umbrella  (without  which  he  never  left 
his  home  for  a  walk)  in  the  air,  the  good  people  of 
Guilford,  or  at  least  a  portion  of  them,  became  perfect 
ly  satisfied  in  their  own  minds  that  poor  Halleck  had 
gone  mad,  and  that  he  should  accordingly  be  confined 
in  a  safe  place.  Racine,  it  will  be  remembered,  com 
posed  his  verses  in  a  similar  manner.  One  day,  when 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  49 1 

thus  working  at  his  play  of  "  Mithridates,"  in  the  gar 
dens  of  the  Tuileries,  a  crowd  of  ottvriers  gathered 
around  him,  attracted  by  his  gestures  and  loud  voice  ; 
they  supposed  that  he  was  a  madman  bent  on  commit 
ting  suicide  by  throwing  himself  in  the  Seine. 

In  June  a  new  edition  of  Halleck's  poems  appeared 
from  the  press  of  J.  S.  Redfield,  containing  the  second 
part  of  "  Connecticut,"  and  a  few  other  pieces  not  in 
cluded  in  previous  editions ;  "  Fanny  "  being  also  incor 
porated  in  the  collection.  Of  this  volume  a  critic  in  Har 
per's  Magazine  said  :  "  We  congratulate  the  admirers 
of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  and  what  reader  of  American 
poetry  is  not  his  admirer,  on  a  new  edition  of  his  poeti 
cal  works  recently  issued  by  Redfield,  containing  the 
old,  familiar,  and  cherished  pieces,  with  some  extracts 
from  hitherto  unpublished  poems.  The  fame  of  Hal 
leck  is  identified  with  the  literature  of  his  country. 
The  least  voluminous  of  her  great  poets,  few  have  a 
more  permanent  reputation,  or  a  more  authentic  claim 
to  the  sacred  title  of  poet.  Combining  a  profuse 
wealth  of  fancy  with  a  strong  and  keen  intellect,  he 
tempers  the  passages  in  which  he  most  freely  indulges, 
in  a  sweet  and  tender  pathos,  with  an  elastic  ^gor  of 
thought,  and  dries  the  tears  which  he  tempts  forth,  by 
sudden  flashes  of  gayety,  making  him  one  of  the  most 
uniformly  piquant  of  modern  poets.  His  expressions  of 
sentiment  never  fall  languidly  ;  he  opens  the  fountains 
of  the  heart  with  the  master-touch  of  genius ;  his  humor 


492  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

is  as  gracious  and  refined  as  it  is  racy,  and  abounding  in 
local  allusions,  he  gives  such  a  point  and  edge  to  their 
satire,  that  they  outlive  the  occasions  of  their  applica 
tion,  and  may  be  read  with  as  much  delight  at  the 
present  time  as  when  the  parties  and  persons  whom 
they  commemorate  were  in  full  bloom.  The  terseness 
of  Mr.  Halleck's  language  is  in  admirable  harmony 
with  his  vivacity  of  thought  and  richness  of  fancy,  and 
in  this  respect  presents  a  most  valuable  object  of  study 
for  young  poets." 

From  Nahant,  Lydia  H.  Sigourney  sends,  on  a 
summer's  day  in  June,  1852,  to  her  poet-friend,  the 
following  lines  : 

Halleck !  upon  the  Ocean's  verge, 

'Mid  the  rude  rocks  of  Old  Nahant, 
'  Where  wave  and  surge  their  warfare  urge, 

And  vegetation,  always  scant, 
Puts  on  a  scarf  of  summer  pride, 
Like  tartan  of  the  Highland  bride, 
Her  wardrobe's  poverty  to  hide — 
Here,  by  pure  breezes  visited, 
In  nook  at  Drew's  Hotel,  I've  read 

Aloud,  from  an  antique  edition, 
Your  "  Fanny,"  and  the  other  lays, 

Those  earlier  promptings  of  ambition 
That  led  you  on  to  fame  and  praise. 

All  pleased  me  and  my  audience  well, 
And  yet,  methinks,  I  fain  would  tell 


FITZ-CREENE  HALLECK.  493 

That  first,  and  most  especially, 

The  rhymes  of  Thomas  Castaly 

Provoked  my  merriment  and  glee, 

For  they  were  favorites  with  me, 
I  dare  not  hint  how  long  ago, 
And  'tis  no  matter — dates,  you  know, 

Are  inconvenient  things  in  measure, 
And  to  remember  them  too  well, 

More  of  a  toil  than  pleasure. 

They  say  that  poets  ne'er  grow  old, 

Yet  Time  hath  quite  a  sleight-of-hand 
At  filching  charms  they'd  gladly  hold 

Longer  at  their  command, 
The  lustrous  locks  away  to  shred, 
And  scatter  snow-flakes  in  their  stead ; 

But  still,  by  some  free-masonry, 
I  understand,  they  have  an  art 
To  keep  the  sunbeam  in  their  heart, 

And,  notwithstanding  years  may  sever, 
And  blight,  and  change,  and  bear  away, 
Lay  claim  to  Klopstock's  sobriquet, 

"The  you  th  forever. ' ' 

Halleck !  beneath  your  natal  sky 

Still  do  you  link  in  classic  numbers 
That  humor,  quiet,  quaint,  and  fine, 
Which  few  like  you  are  skilled  to  twine  ? 
Or,  with  Bozzaris'  battle-cry, 

Startle  the  mermaids  from  their  slumbers, 


494  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Where  Guilford,  like  a  well-set  pin, 

Stands  "Head  "  and  "Point  "  the  sea  within  ? 

Please  solve  these  doubts,  when  inclination 

And  leisure  blend, 
And  count  me  still,  in  every  station, 

Truly,  your  friend. 

In  a  letter  dated  1852,  Charles  Augustus  Davis 
writes  to  Halleck  that  he  is  planning  to  put  a  huge 
bronze  statue  of  Irving  and  himself  in  Gramercy  Park, 
New  York.  "I  have  no  idea,"  he  says,  "  of  waiting 
till  folks  have  left  us,  as  I  see  no  good  reason  why  a 
man  should  not  enjoy  a  little  of  his  fame  before  he  is 
packed  up  and  gone.  *  *  *  Have  you,"  Mr.  Davis 
asks  the  poet,  "  any  special  objection  to  an  umbrella 
under  your  arm  ?  especially  as  you  have  to  stand  out 
at  all  seasons,  and  might  get  wet.  I  am  afraid,  if  it  is 
not  there,  the  likeness  would  not  strike  I  " 

The  poet,  in  the  following  letter  to  James  H.  Hack- 
ett,  alludes  to  the  proposed  statue,  and  also  to  his 
friend's  second  marriage  to  a  lady  just  thirty-nine  years 
his  junior : 

[TO  JAMES  H.   HACKETT.] 

GUILFOKD,  CONN.,  August  14,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  very  glad,  indeed,  to  learn 
from  your  kind  letter  of  remembrance  that  there  are 
other  sensible  young  women  besides  Mrs.  Enoch  (see 
Genesis  v.  21)  and  the  late  Lady  Leicester,  who  believe 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  495 

that  it  takes  sixty-five  years  to  make  a  good  husband. 
Mrs.  Enoch  became  the  mother  of  Methusalem,  a  mil- 
lionnaire  in  years,  and  Lady  Leicester  the  mother  of 
five  sons,  each  a  millionnaire  in  money.  May  your 
marriage  destiny  be  the  long  life  of  the  one,  and  the 
long  purses  of  the  other  ! 

For  my  own  part,  I  still  continue  to  fancy  that 
Methusalem's  resolution — not  to  marry  until  he  was 
one  hundred  and  eighty-one — was  wise  and  prudent  as 
a  general  rule.  I  am  fast  approaching  that  interesting 
period;  and,  unless  Mrs.  Hackett,  when  I  have  the 
pleasure  of  conversing  with  her,  shall,  by  reference  to 
her  own  pleasant  example,  persuade  me  into  an  early 
marriage,  I  shall  wait  patiently  another  century  for  the 
happy  day. 

Please  accept  my  best  thanks  for  the  Shakesperian 
pamphlet.  I  have  kept  pace  admiringly  with  your 
progress  in  an  enterprise  so  honorable  to  you  and  your 
associates,  and,  well  acquainted  as  I  have  so  long  been 
with  your  own  special  energy  and  perseverance  in  every 
species  of  well-doing,  I  have  great  expectation  of  your 
ultimate  success.  Thus  far  our  climate  and  that  of 
England  do  not  seem  congenial  to  such  "  out-of-doors  " 
undertakings. 

Our  flattering  and  facetious  friend,  Chas.  Augustus 
Davis,  once  promised,  if  I  would  die,  to  impedestal  a 
statue  of  me  in  some  one  of  your  city's  triangular 
parks,  and  when  I  objected,  for  fear  of  taking  cold 


496  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

with  the  park  gates  open,  he  kindly  assured  me  that 
I  should  stand  with  an  umbrella  over  my  head. 
Whether  he  has  found  a  sculptor  cunning  in  carving 
stone  umbrellas  and  has  patronized  his  genius,  I  have 
not  yet  been  told. 

Repeating  my  acknowledgments  of  your  pleasant 
recollections  of  me,  I  am,  my  dear  sir,  most  truly  yours, 
FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  date  of  the  following  corre 
spondence,  an  entertainment  was  given  to  Mr.  Halleck 
at  the  Century  Club  by  the  gentlemen  whose  names 
are  appended  to  the  letter  of  invitation.  This  was  one 
of  the  few  public  dinners  that  the  retiring  poet  could 
be  prevailed  upon  to  accept,  preferring  to  sit  down  to  a 
quiet  family  table,  or  to  breakfast  and  dine  with  two  or 
three  friends,  at  the  clubs,  or  at  Delmonico's.  Another 
occasion,  after  his  retirement  to  Guilford,  when  he  suc 
cumbed  to  the  entreaties  of  his  friends,  was  in  attend 
ing  one  of  the  anniversary  dinners,  given  in  New 
York,  in  commemoration  of  the  birthday  of  Robert 
Burns. 

[TO    FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.] 

CENTURY  ROOMS,  Nov.  22,  1853. 

DEAR  SIR  :  Desirous  of  offering  some  expression 
of  our  high  estimate  of  that  genius  which  has  con 
tributed  so  much  to  the  literary  renown  of  our  country, 
and  of  the  sincere  personal  respect  which  we,  in  com- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  497 

mon  with  all  who  know  you,  feel  toward  yourself,  we 
beg  to  invite  your  presence  at  a  dinner,  to  be  given  at 
the  rooms  of  the  Century,  at  such  time,  most  agreeable 
to  yourself,  as  you  may  do  us  the  favor  to  name. 
We  are,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  servants, 
G.  C.  VERPLANCK,          A.  M.  COZZENS, 
W.  C.  BRYANT,  W.  H.  APPLETON, 

A.  B.  DURAND,  E.  M.  YOUNG, 

JONA.  STURGES,  H.  L.  PIERSON, 

F.  W.  EDMONDS,  JOSIAH  LANE, 
JNO.  H.  GOURLIE,  F.  F.  MARBURY, 
WILLIAM  KEMBLE,          HENRY  K.  BROWN, 
J.  P.  CRONKHITE,  GEO.  B.  BUTLER, 
CHARLES  M.  LEUPP,       DR.  THOMAS  WARD, 
J.  F.  KENSETT,  OGDEN  HAGGERTY, 

G.  G.  SMITH,  DAVID  DUDLEY  FIELD, 

HENRY  PETERS  GRAY. 

(TO  G.  C.  VERPLANCK,  W.  C.  BRYANT,  ETC.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Nov.  26,  1853. 

GENTLEMEN  :  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving 
your  favor  of  the  22d  inst.,  expressing,  in  the  most 
flattering  manner,  your  kind  remembrance  of  mine 
and  me,  and  proffering  me,  in  connection  with  such 
remembrance,  the  honor  of  a  dinner  at  your  hospitable 
rooms.  I  deeply  regret  that  my  engagements  here  do 
not  allow  me,  at  this  moment,  to  name,  as  you  request, 
a  day  on  which  to  avail  myself  of  your  courtesy,  and  I 


498  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

hope  you  will  pardon  the  liberty  I  take  in  asking  per 
mission  to  call  upon  you,  ere  long,  in  New  York,  in 
order  to  place  myself  at  your  disposal,  in  conformity 
with  such  arrangements  as  may  then  suit  your  con 
venience. 

Begging  you,  gentlemen,  each  and  all  of  you,  to 
accept  my  most  grateful  acknowledgments  of  the  high 
compliment  you  have  paid  me,  and  wishing  that  my 
humble  writings  and  the  writer  were  less  unworthy  of 
your  good  opinion,  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 
With  the  utmost  regard  and  respect, 

Your  friend  and  faithful  servant, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Wm.  C.  Bryant,  who  presided  at  the  dinner,  says, 
in  a  note  to  the  writer  :  "I  recollect  that,  in  my  intro 
duction  to  the  principal  toast,  I  spoke  of  Halleck  oc 
cupying  the  same  place  in  our  literature  that  Horace 
did  in  Latin  poetry,  with  the  same  gayety  and  grace  in 
his  satire  and  the  same  '  curious  felicity,'  if  that  be  a 
correct  translation  of  curioso  felicitas,  of  his  lyrical 
writings.  Mr.  Halleck,  claiming  the  privilege  of  sit 
ting  while  he  spoke,  answered,  I  do  not  remember 
what,  but  I  well  remember  how,  and  that  was  very 
happily,  and  in  a  manner  which  pleased  us  all."  Gu- 
lian  C.  Verplanck,  who  was  also  present,  acting  on  the 
occasion  as  vice-president,  recalls  the  circumstance  of 
Halleck  begging  to  be  excused  from  standing,  for  then 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  499 

(<  the  brains  ran  to  his  heels,"  and  of  his  speaking  very 
wittily  and  to  the  purpose,  sitting  in  his  chair. 

The  Journal  of  Commerce  of  January  19,  1854,  al 
ludes  in  the  following  words  to  this  entertainment : 
"  The  members  of  the  Century  Club — a  club  com 
posed  of  the  artists  and  literary  men  of  the  city — gave 
a  dinner  last  evening  to  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  at  their 
establishment  in  Clinton  Place.  Mr.  Wm.  C.  Bryant 
presided ;  Mr.  Gulian  C.  Verplanck  was  vice-president. 
Many  eminent  gentlemen  were  present  on  the  occa 
sion.  Mr.  Bryant  made  one  of  the  elegant  speeches 
for  which  he  is  distinguished,  and  called  out  Mr.  Hal 
leck,  who  delighted  the  audience  with  a  brilliant  re 
sponse,  but  retained  his  chair,  giving  as  a  reason  for  it 
that  Mr.  Gardiner,  who  was  spoken  of  by  John  Ran 
dolph  as  a  great  orator,  was  completely  overwhelmed 
by  attempting  to  express  his  sentiments  without  rising, 
and  stating  that  Mr.  Gardiner  could  only  regain  his 
self-possession  by  getting  on  his  feet,  and  that  he,  on 
the  contrary,  did  not  dare  to  rise.  Mr.  Verplanck  re 
sponded  in  a  most  delightful  manner  to  a  toast  offered 
by  Mr.  Bryant  to  the  Bucktail  Bards.  The  dinner 
will  long  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
and  elegant  ever  given  in  the  city.  We  publish  the 
correspondence,  but  we  dare  not  trespass  by  referring 
more  particularly  to  the  speeches  by  which  the  occa 
sion  was  enlivened." 

The  late  Charles  M.  Leupp,  in  a  letter  to  the  poet, 


500  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

referring  to  the  entertainment,  says  :  "  Troubles  never 
come  singly,  and  I  have  been  assailed  so  frequently 
since,  by  gentlemen  inquiring  why  they  are  not  per 
mitted  to  be  parties  to  the  dinner,  that  I  have  had  my 
hands  full  in  that  direction.  It  may  be  gratifying  to 
you  to  know  that  the  table  was  filled  by  those  who 
solicited  the  honor  of  a  seat.  There  was  but  one  un 
occupied,  Mr.  Gray's.  He  did  not  receive  his  note 
informing  him  that  the  dinner  would  take  place  until 
the  morning  after.  Your  '  unspoken  speech '  has  been 
received  with  unanimous  applause,  'not  /0z^/but  deep,1 
and  I  don't  know  how  to  appease  the  malcontents  who 
were  not  present,  except  to  do  it  all  over  again,  and  if 
you  don't  forgive  me  all  my  trespasses  and  sins,  I  shall, 
with  the  aid  of  some  of  the  dissatisfied,  set  the  ball  in 
motion." 

Halleck's  tribute  to  Lewis  Gaylord  Clark,  a  con 
tribution  to  the  "  Knickerbocker  Gallery,"  was  written 
at  his  "  favorite  country-seat  at  Fort  Lee,"  July,  1854. 
It  is  gracefully  pensive,  rather  than  melancholy,  and 
closes  with  the  sweetest  of  sweet  lines,  which  neither 
Burns  nor  Moore  could  have  surpassed  : 

"  I  hope  thou  wilt  not  banish  hence 

These  few  and  fading  flowers  of  mine, 
But  let  their  theme  be  their  defence, 
The  love,  the  joy,  and  frankincense, 
And  fragrance  o'  LANG  SYNE." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^OI 

Mr.  Clark,  in  a  letter  to  Halleck,  acknowledging  his 
profound  gratitude,  says  :  "  My  heart  is  in  my  mouth, 
and  most  grateful  tears  are  in  my  wife's  eyes,  and  I 
don't  know  how  to  express  to  you  my  fervent  thanks, 
my  most  deep  gratitude,  for  the  noble,  the  proud  lines 
you  have  been  so  good  as  to  address  to  my  humble 
name.  To  have  had  your  world-known  Muse  repre 
sented  in  the  testimonial  to  me  was  of  itself  an  honor, 
and  a  high  one ;  but  to  have  me  and  mine  personally 
remembered  in  words  of  such  exquisite  beauty  and 
power — to  know  and  feel  what  a  legacy  this  will  be  to 
our  children  when  we  have  '  gone  hence  ' — this  over 
flows  my  cup  of  gratitude,  of  pride,  and  of  joy.  If  it 
be  happiness  to  make  others  supremely  happy,  that 
happiness  should  be  yours  this  blessed  night." 

In  1855,  at  the  request  of  his  friend  and  former 
colleague  at  Jacob  Barker's,  Benjamin  R.  Winthrop, 
the  poet  sat  to  Thomas  Hicks  for  his  portrait,  which 
was  afterward  engraved  for  the  Bradford  Club  edition 
of  "The  Croakers."  Mr.  Halleck's  letter,  giving  his 
consent,  was  as  follows  : 

[TO   BENJAMIN   R.    WINTHROP.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Jan.  13,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  WINTHROP  :  Your  letter  has  made  me 
very  proud.  Such  requests  have  always  been  among 
the  most  flattering  tokens  of  regard  from  man  and 
woman,  and  this,  coming  from  one  who  has  known  me 


5 02  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

personally  for  so  many  years,  many  of  them  years  that 
tried  the  tempers  of  both  of  us,  is  indeed  a  compliment 
paid  me  of  the  highest  value.  Before  I  again  visit 
New  York  I  will  write  you,  in  time  to  enable  me  to 
conform  to  Mr.  Hicks's  arrangements. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Winthrop, 
Gratefully  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Soon  after  my  return  from  Europe  in  the  autumn 
of  1855,  I  met  Mr.  Halleck  in  New  York,  and  gratified 
him  by  delivering  some  rosebuds  and  ivy-leaves,  sent 
by  the  sister  of  Robert  Burns.  On  this  occasion  we 
had  what  he  called  a  "  twa-handed  crack  together," 
which  continued  for  several  hours,  the  conversation 
being  for  the  most  part  in  relation  to  our  mutual  expe 
riences  in  the  Old  World.  The  following  morning  we 
met  again  at  a  breakfast  given  by  our  mutual  friend, 
Dr.  Edward  G.  Ludlow,  at  the  Astor  House.  The 
poet  was  in  high  spirits ;  and  under  the  charm  of  his 
conversation  our  medical  host  forgot  his  patients,  and 
the  others  forgot  their  business  engagements  of  the 
morning.  We  sat  three  hours,  and  I  think  Halleck 
gave  us  at  least  a  score  of  bon-mots  and  good  stories, 
which,  alas  !  passed  away  with  the  pleasant  occasion 
that  called  them  up. 

The  late  William  Wilson,  of  Poughkeepsie,  in  for 
warding  to  Mr.  Halleck  a  copy  of  his  friend  Hew 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  503 

Ainslie's  "  Scottish  Songs  and  Ballads,"  which  he  had 
assisted  the  author  in  editing,  said  that  a  certain  wise 
newspaper-critic  had  pronounced  them  to  be  fine  speci 
mens  of  pure  Gaelic  poetry.  The  following  letter  is  in 
answer  to  Mr.  Wilson's  note  : 

[TO   WILLIAM   WILSON.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Jan.  12,  1856. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  receiv 
ing  your  very  welcome  letter,  and  am  most  grateful 
for  the  kind  present  it  promises.  The  volume  has  not 
been  sent  me  from  Mr.  Bixby's,  but  I  intend  visiting 
New  York  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  and  shall  doubt 
less  find  it  with  him.  I  look  forward  to  a  world  of 
enjoyment  in  its  perusal.  Its  theme  is,  as  you  know, 
a  theme  I  love,  and  is  worthy  of  all  love  and  honor ; 
and,  in  charity  to  the  learned  critic  you  mention,  I 
would  fondly  presume  that  the  potent  spell  of  the  book 
charmed,  for  a  moment,  his  senses  into  forgetfulness 
of  spelling. 

Please  present  to  that  thorough-bred  son  of  his 
father,  the  younger  Mr.  Wilson,  my  best  good  wishes. 
From  his  full  and  freshly-stored  mind  Doctor  Ludlow 
and  myself  derived,  during  our  interviews  with  him  at 
the  Astor  House,  much  pleasant  and  profitable  infor 
mation.  Believe  me,  my  dear  sir, 

Gratefully  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


504  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

Halleck,  like  Sydney  Smith,  was  fond  of  a  sly  hit 
at  the  lawyers.  In  the  following  letter  he  refers  to  the 
death  of  his  friend  Ogden  Hoffman,  who,  it  will  be 
remembered,  abandoned  the  navy,  in  which  he  served 
with  gallantry  during  the  war  of  i8i2-'i4,  for  the  pro 
fession  of  the  law,  gaining  great  distinction  as  an  elo 
quent  advocate : 

[TO  WILLIAM  W.    BRUCE.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  May  12,  1856. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  Your  kind  favor  of  the  8th  has  to 
day  reached  me  by  the  way  of  Milford.  The  post- 
office  people  transform  your  G's  into  M's.  This  is  the 
third  time  of  their  blunders.  Pray  give  them  hereafter 
a  longer  tail  to  the  G.  I  am  very  grateful  for  your 
continued  remembrance  of  my  wish  as  to  the  city 
loan.  For  the  present,  however,  I  am  content  with 
my  present  investments;  still  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear 
from  you  from  time  to  time  on  the  subject,  particularly 
as  I  thereby  learn  that  you  yourself  are  well  and  doing 
well. 

I  most  sincerely  join  with  you  in  deep  grief  for  the 
loss  of  our  friend  Hoffman,  a  loss,  I  fear,  not  to  be 
supplied  in  our  time.  Commodore  Decatur  loudly 
expressed  his  sad  regret  when  the  navy  lost  his  ser 
vices,  and  lamented  that  he  should  have  exchanged  an 
honorable  profession  for  that  of  a  lawyer  ! 

I  thank  you  for  your  compliment  in  supposing  that 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  505 

I  could  do  aught  to  make  his  memory  more  lasting ; 
but  it  needs  not  our  eulogiums,  and  will  outlast  us  all. 
When  can  I  do  any  thing  for  you  in  return  for  all 
your  kindnesses  ?     When  I  can,  do  not  forget  me. 
Yours  most  truly, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

The  poet  begins  another  note  to  his  friend  and 
associate  in  Astor's  office  as  follows  :  "  It  is  nearly  five 
months  (save  a  few  stormy  days  in  the  first  week  of 
February  too  stormy  to  be  counted)  since  I  have  been 
in  New  York,  and  you  may  have  become  a  member  of 

» 

Congress  or  a  foreign  ambassador  during  that  time; 
still  I  hope  my  letter  will  find  you,  wherever  you  are, 
healthy  and  wealthy,  and  ever  disposed  to  do  me  kind 
nesses  as  of  old." 

While  Thackeray  was  in  the  United  States,  Halleck 
and  the  English  humorist  met  several  times.  They 
first  saw  each  other  at  the  residence  of  Charles  M. 
Leupp,  who,  in  inviting  Halleck  to  a  dinner,  says  : 
"  Thackeray  had  an  engagement  for  Monday,  but  can 
celled  it  for  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you."  The  poet 
was  pleased  with  his  conversation,  but  was  not  an  ad 
mirer  of  his  prose  writings.  He,  however,  admitted 
that  Thackeray  had  the  trick  of  writing  good  Irish 
songs  and  ballads,  and  repeated  with  evident  enjoy 
ment  some  lines  of  the  "  Battle  of  Limerick,"  of  which 
I  remember  but  three  : 


506  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  They  smashed  the  lovely  windies 

(Hung  with  muslin  from  the  Indies) 
Purshuing  of  their  shindies  upon  Shannon  shore." 

At  the  same  time  he  quoted  a  verse  from  one 
of  Thackeray's  early  Irish  songs,  called  "  Barry 
Lindon :  " 

"  On  Brady's  tower  there  grows  a  flower, 
It  is  the  loveliest  flower  that  blows — 
At  Castle  Brady  there  lives  a  lady 

(And  how  I  love  her  no  one  knows)  : 

Her  name  is  Nora,  and  the  goddess  Flora 

Presints  her  with  this  blooming  rose." 

Halleck  went  with  his  friend  Dr.  Ludlow  to  hear 
one  of  Thackeray's  lectures — that  on  George  the 
Fourth — and  was  so  much  displeased  with  what  he 
considered  a  caricature  of  the  man,  for  whom,  with 
all  his  faults,  he  entertained  a  regard  as  "  the  first 
gentleman  of  Europe,"  that,  after  sitting  for  a  few 
minutes,  he  said  to  his  companion,  "  I  am  going.  I 
can't  listen  any  longer  to  his  abuse  of  a  better  man 
than  himself,"  and  the  friends  accordingly  rose  and 
left  the  hall. 

In  January,  1857,  the  poet  writes  to  T.  W.  C. 
Moore,  one  paragraph  of  the  letter  referring  to  his 
portrait  in  the  possession  of  Charles  A.  Davis,  and, 
since  the  poet's  death,  presented  to  the  New-York  His- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  507 

torical  Society  by  Mrs.  Davis  :  "  How  could  you  have 
the  heart  to  induce  our  estimable  Mr.  Davis  to  remove 
that  frightening  caricature  from  the  gracious  shade 
that  had  so  long  half-concealed  it  ?  In  the  sunshine 
of  its  new  fame  it  will  look  as  ugly  as  the  Witch  of 
Endor  in  white  satin  and  Honiton  lace.  Its  kind 
proprietor  has  always  assured  me,  with  the  amiable 
frankness  of  friendship,  that  it  is  'a  flattering  like 
ness  ;  and  now,  it  seems,  you  do  me  the  honor  to 
1  aid  and  abet '  him  in  that  his  most  facetious  joke !  ! 
I  refrain  from  alluding  to  the  comforters  of  Job,  and 
'  the  damned  good-natured  friend '  of  Sir  Fretful  Pla 
giary,  until  I  have  once  more  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you." 

In  answer  to  a  request  that  he  would  become  a 
contributor  to  a  new  periodical  to  be  established  at 
Chicago,  of  which  I  had  the  editorial  charge,  Mr. 
Hallcck  sent  me  the  following  characteristic  letter  : 

[TO  JAMES   GRANT   WILSON.] 

GUILFORD,  Feb.  28,  1857. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  At  the  moment  your  letter  was 
handed  me  I  was  smiling  over  a  stoiy  in  Tom  Moore's 
diary.  An  Irishman,  who  had  been  employed  as  a 
guide  by  a  stranger  in  Dublin,  was  asked,  "  Didn't 
you  know  him  ?  It  is  Sir  Walter  Scott,  the  great 
poet."  "  No,  no,"  he  answered  ;  "  the  divil  a  bit  of  a 
poet  he  is,  BUT  a  real  gentleman,  for  he  gave  me  half 


tjo8  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

a  crown."  I  opened  your  letter,  and  found  myself 
addressed,  not  as  a  real  gentleman,  although  I  have 
spent  a  sufficient  number  of  half-crowns  during  the  last 
seven  years  to  entitle  me  to  the  distinction,  but  as  a 
poor  divil  of  a  poet,  and  offered  a  place  as  piper  in 
a  regiment  of  " penny-a-liners"  stationed  somewhere 
on  the  frontiers  of  civilization,  among  the  Chicago 
Indians.  Pray,  my  dear  sir,  have  you  no  sympathy 
with  repentant  sinners?  Do  you  wish  Mrs.  W.,  if 
there  is  or  is  to  be  such  a  fortunate  woman,  to  remind 
you  of  your  early  flirtations,  of  the  time  when  you 
used,  as  Milton  says :  • 

"  To  sport  with  Amyrillis  in  the  shade, 
Or  with  the  tangles  of.  Nesera's  hair  "  ? 

Have  you  not,  yourself,  nursed  as  you  were  in  song, 
written  as  boy  more  rhymes  than  you  have  ever  sold  as 
publisher?  And  shall  I  tell  it  to  "the  trade,"  and 
jeopardize  the  credit  of  your  firm  at  the  next  sale  ? 
Are  not  seven  years  of  good  behavior — years  that, 
according  to  Wordsworth,  "bring  the  philosophic 
mind  " — to  justify  an  unlimited  ticket  of  leave  ?  Or 
do  you  hope  to  make  your  magazine  so  profitable 
as  to  enable  you  to  pay  prices  princely  enough  to 
change  a  poet's  proverbial  character  into  that  of  a  real 
gentleman  ?  or  what  is  still  more  respectable,  as  times 
go,  into  a  shrewd  Fifth-Avenue  business  man,  praised 
and  envied  for  successful  energy  and  enterprise  until 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  509 

he  is  dead,  and  then  declared  by  the  surrogate  to  have 
been  incapable  of  making  a  will,  by  reason  of  his 
mental  imbecility  ? 

To  be  serious — I  am  very  happy  to  hear  that  you 
have  placed  yourself  in  business  in  a  manner  so  satis 
factory  to  you,  and  I  wish  you  a  pleasant  and  pros 
perous  career.  I  have  so  often  violated  my  promise  to 
write  for  magazines,  etc.,  that  my  word  is  at  a  large 
discount  per  month  in  the  book-market ;  but  if  you  will 
have  the  kindness  to  send  me  your  first  number  I  will 
certainly  read  it  through  every  line,  which  is  all  that  I 
will  ask  of  your  readers  concerning  the  first  article  that 
I  shall  send  you  for  their  perusal. 
Believe  me,  my  dear  sir, 

Very  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

Few  men  could  pay  a  prettier  compliment  than  Mr. 
Halleck,  as  the  following  letter  to  a  friend,  who  had 
sent  him  a  volume  of  essays,  will  illustrate : 

[TO  WILLIAM   A.   JONES.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  June  15,  1857. 

DEAR  SIR  :  Your  favor  of  (no  date,  but  post-marked 
2d  inst.)  has  but  now  reached  me,  having  been  ad 
dressed  to  New  Haven  in  place  of  the  old  town  whose 
looks  you  once  told  me  you  so  much  liked.  It  is  so 
long  since  you  have  been  here,  that  I  do  not  wonder 


5  I0  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

that  you  have  forgotten  it,  and  I  am  the  more  grateful 
for  the  certainty  that  you  have  not  forgotten  me,  as 
your  very  welcome  present,  which  I  only  received  from 
.  Mr.  Redfield's  a  few  days  since,  so  flatteringly  assured 
me.  Please  accept  herewith  another  instalment  of  my 
heart's  thanks  for  your  courtesies,  and  place  it  to  the 
credit  of  the  long-standing  account  between  us,  whose 
only  credits  are  of  a  similar  nature.  If  I  should  ever 
publish  another  book,  the  excuse  for  its  deficiencies 
will  be  my  earnest  desire  to  attempt  to  pay  you  and  a 
few  like  you  the  debts  I  owe  in  kind  as  well  as  in  kind 
ness. 

I  am  happy  to  find  that  you  have  enlarged  your  col 
lection,  and  enriched  it  still  more  with  new  nuggets  from 
the  original  vein,  all  true  in  the  old  worth  and  weight. 
Don't  be  too  proud  when  I  tell  you  that  a  young  lady 
here,  who  honors  me  by  borrowing  all  the  books  in  my 
little  library,  assured  me,  on  returning  your  former 
volume,  that  it  had  given  her  more  delight  and  instruc 
tion  blended,  than  any  book  she  had  ever  read ;  and 
when  I  hinted  at  the  possible  equality  of  Addison's, 
Goldsmith's,  etc.,  she  told  me  I  was  no  judge.  There's 
fame  for  you  !  She  (the  lady,  not  Fame)  is  only 
eighteen,  and  as  lovely  as  morning. 

Do  you  ever  see  our  old  and  estimable  acquaint 
ances,  the  Elliots?  They  are  now  at  home  in  New 
York,  and  have,  I  fear,  forgotten,  like  you,  in  their 
metropolitan  "  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance,"  all 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  5  j  x 

villages  under  fifty  thousand  inhabitants.  When  your 
college,  like  our  "  Lady  of  Loretto,"  has  found  a  rest 
ing-place  for  a  few  years,  please  let  me  know,  and  I 
will  look  it  up  in  the  hope  of  finding  you  there  wealthy 
and  healthy.  Believe  me,  dear  sir, 
Most  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

It  was  during  the  month  of  September,  1857,  that  I 
met  the  poet  in  New  York,  and  we  went  together  to 
the  Broadway  Theatre  to  see  his  friend  Charles  Mat 
thews,  in  a  new  and  amusing  comedy  entitled  "  Mar 
ried  for  Money."  "  Have  you  ever  looked  through  St. 
Paul's  and  Trinity  churchyards  ? "  asked  the  poet  of 
the  writer,  as  we  rose  from  the  breakfast-table  on  the 
following  morning ;  and,  receiving  a  reply  in  the  nega 
tive,  he  said,  "  If  you  are  at  leisure,  let  us  go  now;  " 
and  we  accordingly  crossed  over  from  the  Astor  House, 
and,  finding  the  entrance  open,  walked  in.  After 
pointing  out  the  graves  of  some  of  the  "  old  familiar 
faces,"  friends  of  his  early  and  later  years,  he  led  me  to 
the  last  resting-place  of  the  celebrated  actor,  George 
Frederick  Cooke,  and  pointed  out  the  tomb  erected  by 
the  liberality  of  Edmund  Kean  in  1821,  and  restored 
by  his  son  Charles  in  1846.  With  all  these  eminent 
tragedians'  theatrical  representations,  Halleck  was  fa 
miliar,  and  with  the  Keans  he  was  intimately  ac 
quainted.  Among  other  interesting  recollections  con- 


ijI2  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

nected  with  St.  Paul's  Church,  the  poet  told  me  that, 
nine  years  after  his  father  was  born,  the  block  on  which 
the  church  now  stands  was  ploughed  and  sowed  with 
wheat ;  and  that  he  witnessed  the  reinterment,  under 
the  present  monument,  of  the  remains  of  the  gallant 
Montgomery,  who  fell  at  Quebec,  in  1775,  which  were 
removed  to  New  York,  July  8,  1818.  It  was  through 
the  instrumentality  of  John  Pintard,  who  died  in  1844, 
said  the  poet,  that  General  Montgomery's  remains  were 
recovered.  Dr.  John  Pintard,  the  founder  of  the  New- 
York  Historical  Society,  and  the  friend  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Hamilton,  King,  Jay,  Fish,  and 
other  Revolutionary  worthies,  was  fully  conversant  with 
the  horrors  of  the  Jersey  prison-ship,  the  scenes  in  the 
old  Sugar-House,  and  the  hospital  practice  on  the 
American  prisoners  in  the  old  Dutch  Church  in  Nassau 
Street  (now  the  Post-office),  then  appropriated  for 
medical  and  other  purposes  by  the  British  army.  From 
St.  Paul's  we  proceeded  to  Trinity,  the  poet  entertain 
ing  me  by  the  way  with  his  recollections  of  Dr.  Pintard. 
Soon  after  entering,  he  led  me  to  the  south  side  of  the 
churchyard,  and  pointed  out  the  monument  of  Alexan 
der  Hamilton  (which,  as  was  the  case  with  Cooke's 
tablet,  I  had  never  seen),  entertaining  me  with  eulogis 
tic  remarks  on  that  eminent  statesman.  Many  years 
afterward,  we  went  together  to  see  the  grave  of  Mrs. 
Hamilton,  with  whom  Mr.  Halleck  was  well  acquainted, 
and  who  was,  probably,  the  last  survivor  among  those 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


513 


who,  during  the  Revolutionary  days,  was  on  terms  of 
intimacy  with  General  and  Mrs.  Washington.  It 
was  on  the  occasion  of  our  second  visit,  in  1866,  that 
he  also  pointed  out  to  me  the  vaults  of  the  Livingston 
and  Watts  families,  containing  the  remains  of  his 
friends  Robert  Fulton  and  General  Philip  Kearney. 
22* 


CHAPTER    IX. 

1858-1866. 

New  Editions  of  Poems. — Fourth  of  July  in  New  York. — Reminiscences. — 
Birthday  Lines. — Anecdotes  of  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Marshal  Grouchy, 
etc.— French  Translations.— Mr.  Bryant  visits  Halleck.— Letters  to 
Mrs.  Rush. — Browning  and  Tennyson. — Capture  of  John  Slidell. — 
War-Odes. — Picture  of  Irving  and  his  Friends. — Halleck's  Opinion  of 
Jackson. — A  Visit  to  the  Poet. — Anecdotes. — Young  America. — Willis 
on  Halleck. — Letter  to  a  Clergyman. — Reminiscences. 

|N  1858  new  and  complete  editions  of  Mr.  Hal 
leck's  poems  were  published  by  the  Appletons 
in  one  I2mo  volume,  and  in  the  small  and  popular 
blue  and  gold  series.  These  were  the  last  issued  dur 
ing  his  career  on  earth.  The  poet  appears  to  have 
been  a  literary  faineant  after  leaving  New  York,  for 
but  two  poems,  written  during  a  period  of  nine  years — 
if,  indeed,  he  wrote  any  others — were  deemed  worthy 
of  a  place  in  the  editions  of  1858.  Of  the  I2mo  vol 
umes,  which  enjoyed  a  wide  circulation,  a  single  West 
ern  State  purchased  a  thousand  copies  for  the  use  of 
their  school-district  libraries. 

Mr.   Halleck's  visits  to  New  York  on  the  4th  of 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  5^ 

July  were  continued  almost  to  the  last.  He  did  not 
care  for  the  display — the  military  parades  of  the  day 
and  the  exhibitions  of  fireworks  at  night — but  greatly 
enjoyed  wandering  about  the  city  alone,  watching  the 
country  people,  and  looking  with  pleasure  upon  the 
happy  groups  of  girls  and  boys,  and  occasionally  dis 
tributing  a  few  coppers  or  fire-crackers  among  some 
of  the  poorer  and  most  ragged  specimens  of  Young 
America  to  be  found  in  and  around  the  City-Hall  Park. 
In  a  letter  dated  October  2,  1858,  the  poet  says:  "I 
am  gradually  lessening  the  number  of  my  visits  to  your 
city,  and  becoming  more  and  more  a  ( stranger  and 
sojourner'  there.  I  was  there,  as  usual,  to  see  my 
old  favorite  day,  the  '  Fourth  of  July,'  which  I  found 
as  noisy  and  as  merry  as  ever.  I  had  too  much  regard 
for  you  to  call  upon  you  at  the  same  time.  The  weather 
was  quite  too  hot  for  your  hospitality." 

The  following  letter,  addressed  to  General  Sand- 
ford,  refers  to  an  amusing  parody  on  "  Marco  Boz- 
zaris,"  entitled  "  John  McKeon,"  and  written,  not  by 
his  son,  but  by  Miss  Sandford,  and  also  contains  a 
facetious  reference  to  their  service  together  in  the  fam 
ous  Iron  Grays : 

[TO  GENERAL  SANDFORD.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  July  19,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL  :  I  regret  that  my  absence 
from  home  has  caused  your  letter  of  the  loth  instant 


5!6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

to  remain  so  long  unanswered.  I  have  been  most 
pleasantly  amused  by  your  son's  very  clever  burlesque. 
That  I  have  Falstaff  s  wit  will  continue  to  be  doubted ; 
but  that,  like  him,  I  have  been  "  the  cause  of  wit  in 
others,"  is  now  quite  certain.  Sir  Walter  Scott  always 
insisted  upon  claiming  the  imitation  of  him,  in  the 
"  Rejected  Addresses,"  as  his  own  lines,  written  like 
Coleridge's  "  Kubla  Khan,"  in  a  dream,  and  used  to 
boast  of  them  as  the  best  he  had  written.  I  am  half 
inclined,  in  the  present  case,  to  follow  his  example, 
and  rob  our  young  poet  of  his  laurels.  Pray  say  to 
him,  with  my  grateful  compliments,  that  since  he  can 
do  so  well  in  jest,  we  hope  that  he  will  frequently  let 
us  know  how  much  better  he  can  do  in  earnest. 

I  intended  to  have  availed  myself  of  your  always  so 
kindly  proffered  hospitality  on  the  5th  instant,  but  I 
was  detained  at  the  critical  moment  by  a  young  Greek, 
who  called  on  me  with  a  letter  of  introduction.  I  had, 
however,  the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  delighted  while 
gazing  with  me  from  Bixby's  windows  upon  the  "  pomp 
and  circumstance "  of  your  military  display,  and  he 
spoke  of  the  discipline  and  the  brilliant  appearance  of 
the  troops,  and  of  their  leader,  in  such  nattering  terms, 
that  I  could  not  refrain  from  telling  him  that  but  for 
the  wound  that  I  received  while  fighting  by  your  side, 
in  one  of  our  battles,  during  our  last  war,  on  the  day 
when  you  were  decorated  with  the  Cross  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor,  I  should  myself  have  remained  in  the  army  ! 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^j 

That  young  man  now  knows  something  of  American 
history,  which  is  more  than  I  can  say  of  any  other 
European  of  my  acquaintance. 

Please  do   me  the  kindness   to   present  my  best 
wishes  and  regards   to  your  good  lady  and   to  your 
family,  and  to  believe  me,  my  dear  General, 
Faithfully  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

The  young  Greek  traveller  referred  to  in  the  fore 
going  letter  is  Professor  Canale,  the  translator  of 
"  Marco  Bozzaris,"  and  the  author  of  the  following 
lines,  addressed  to  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  on  the  sixty- 
ninth  anniversary  of  his  birth  : 

"  How  Nature  blushes  on  this  lovely  shore; 

How  sweet  the  roses  scattered  by  the  morn ! 
On  such  a  day,  ere  sixty  years  and  four 

Their  ashes  left  in  classic  glory's  urn, 
A  child,  in  whom  we  wit  and  grace  adore, 

At  Guilford,  in  Connecticut,  was  born ; 
The  Muse  of  song  proclaimed  that  infant's  goal : 

'  Go,  sing  the  beauties  of  thy  lovely  land, 
r      Embalming  in  thy  verse  the  maiden's  soul 

Together  with  the  patriot-hero's  brand  !  ' 

"  Her  he  obeyed,  and  sang,  like  Ohio's  bard, 
The  brilliant  exploits  of  our  Souli's  son, 
Who,  aided  by  three  hundred  comrades,  warred 
On  soil  where  erst  the  Persians  were  undone. 


c^g  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

In  tent  of  Scodra's  satrap  entered  he, 

And  bravely  fought  against  the  savage  horde, 
Determined  that  his  country  should  be  free, 

Or  he  would  perish  by  the  foeman's  sword. 
Thy  beautiful  and  spirit-stirring  lay, 

With  which  thou  hast  immortalized  his  name, 
Shall  live  as  long  as  Hellas'  arm  doth  sway, 

Long  as  her  Muse  shall  sing  of  patriot  fame. 

"  Botzaris'  laurels  shall  with  Halleck's  blend, 

And  send  their  fragrance  to  all  states  oppressed, 
And  pilgrims  from  afar  shall  thither  wend, 

To  pay  their  homage  where  their  glories  rest. 
Let  glory  ever  gild  thy  day  of  birth, 

More  as  the  tide  of  time  rolls  over  thee ; 
And,  when  thou  hast  beheld  '  the  last  of  earth,' 

Mayst  thou  enjoy  thy  immortality  !  " 

I  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  the  poet  in  New 
York  in  October,  1859,  when  we  had  several  "ses 
sions  "  together.  From  a  memorandum  made  at  the 
time  I  extract  a  few  paragraphs  :  "  At  breakfast  to-day, 
Halleck  had,  as  usual,  about  a  hundred  anecdotes.  He 
is  in  the  matter  of  stories  what  Hudibras  was  in  figures 
of  speech — '  his  mouth  he  cannot  ope,  but  out  there  flew 
a  trope.'  So  with  the  poet;  he  cannot  open  his  mouth 
without  uttering  or  recalling  something  worth  hearing. 
He  conversed  on  twenty  different  topics  in  the  course 
of  two  hours.  To-morrow  we  are  to  go  to  Weehawken, 
and  dine  together  on  our  return.  *  *  * 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^^ 

"  In  the  course  of  our  dinner  to-day,  Halleck  related 
numerous  stories  to  illustrate  various  topics,  among 
which  was  an  anecdote  of  the  Grand  Monarque  and 
one  of  his  veterans.  Louis,  being  extremely  harassed 
by  the  repeated  solicitations  of  the  old  soldier  for  pro 
motion,  said  one  day,  loud  enough  to  be  heard,  *  That 
gentleman  is  the  most  troublesome  officer  I  have  in 
my  army.'  (  That  is  precisely  the  charge,'  said  the 
vieux  sabreur,  '  which  your  majesty's  enemies  bring 
against  me.'  He  was  advanced,  his  wit  having  won 
the  promotion  which  his  gallant  record  failed  to  obtain 
for  him. 

"  This  story  was  followed  by  an  account  of  the 
wedding-party  of  a  member  of  the  Bonaparte  family  at 
Villegrand's,  in  Warren  Street,  New  York.  Halleck 
was  the  only  American  present,  all  the  others  being 
French.  Among  the  company  was  Count  Survilliers, 
the  title  assumed  in  this  country  by  Joseph  Bonaparte ; 
Marshal  Grouchy,  who,  according  to  the  ex-king's  tes 
timony,  said  Halleck,  '  was  not  a  traitor  to  Napoleon ; ' 
Generals  Renaud,  St.  Jean  d'Angely,  Van  Dam,  Des- 
nouettes,  Lallemand,  and  other  expatriated  followers 
of  the  emperor,  who  sought  a  refuge  in  the  United 
States.  The  count  talked  to  Halleck  on  this  and 
other  occasions  without  reserve,  referring  to  his  former 
situation  as  '  Quand  j'etais  roi  d'Espagne,'  or  '  Dans 
mes  belles  affaires.'  In  the  course  of  the  evening  the 
party  became  quite  hilarious,  and  enjoyed  themselves 


Ij20  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

as  no  other  men  on  the  face  of  the  earth  but  French 
men  could  have  done  under  similar  circumstances. 
The  ex-king  made  a  trumpet  of  a  newspaper,  and  blew 
it  vigorously  ;  the  marshal  sang  songs,  all  present  join 
ing  in  the  chorus;  the  famous  cavalry  leader,  Lalle- 
mand,  jumped  about  on  all  fours,  with  a  four-year-old 
boy  on  his  back ;  while  another  Waterloo  general  gave 
laughable  imitations  of  a  stuttering  French  soldier,  and 
other  comicalities.  They  romped  and  played  like 
children,  and  although  some  of  the  party  were  old, 
others  elderly,  they  were  all  full  of  youthful  spirit. 
Halleck  modestly  refrained  from  stating  in  what  man 
ner  he  contributed  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  evening, 
which  he  characterized  as  the  '  raciest  and  most  amus 
ing  night  I  ever  passed.' 

"  Among  the  other  entertaining  stories  which  the 
poet  related  of  the  French  marshals,  was  one  of  Junot, 
who,  when  made  governor  of  the  Illyrian  provinces, 
one  morning  surprised  the  whole  population  by  ap 
pearing  in  the  Great  Square  before  his  palace  on  a 
pedestal,  mounted  on  his  horse,  a  la  Mazeppa,  with  a 
single  filet ,  himself  naked  as  he  was  born,  as  personify 
ing  an  equestrian  statue.  The  police  advanced  to  stop 
the  scandalous  exhibition,  and,  to  their  utter  astonish 
ment,  found  that  it  was  the  general-in-chief.  This 
anecdote  does  not,  of  course,  appear  in  the  admirable 
memoirs  of  his  wife,  the  Duchess  d'Abrantes,  a  work 
often  quoted  and  referred  to  by  Mr.  Halleck." 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  jj2I 

During  a  visit  made  by  Mr.  Halleck  to  New  York, 
in  April,  1860,  he  was  for  some  time  confined  to  his 
hotel  by  a  severe  cold.  One  morning,  when  a  very  in 
timate  friend  called  to  see  the  poet,  he  said  that,  if  he 
should  die  then  or  hereafter  in  New  York,  he  wished 
his  friend  Dr.  Taylor,  of  Grace  (Episcopal)  Church,  to 
conduct  the  funeral  services,  and  that  his  remains 
should  be  taken  to  Greenwood  Cemetery.  Among 
his  numerous  visitors,  while  he  was  compelled  to  re 
main  in-doors,  was  William  C.  Bryant,  to  whom  he 
makes  allusion  in  the  following  amusing  letter  to  John 
Bigelow,  that  gentleman,  while  honorably  representing 
this  country  in  France,  having  forwarded  to  Mr.  Hal 
leck  translations  of  several  of  his  poems,  made  by  M. 

de  C ,  an  estimable  French  gentleman  of  letters 

and  leisure,  who  had  requested  Mr.  Bigelow  to  forward 
them  to  the  poet : 

-      [TO  JOHN   BIGELOW.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  May  24,  1860. 

MY  -DEAR  SIR :  A  "  hoarsen  cold,"  wanting  the 
dignity  of  that  of  Justice  Shallow's  conscript,  "  Peter 
Bullcalf,  of  the  Green,"  which  was  "  caught  by  ringing 
in  the  king's  affairs  upon  his  coronation  day,"  has,  to 
my  exceeding  regret,  compelled  me  to  postpone  from 
time  to  time  my  answer  to  your  kind  letter.  With  my 
returning  strength  I  hasten  to  thank  you  for  your  con 
tinued  remembrance  of  me,  preserved  as  it  so  flatter- 


IJ22  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

ingly  has  been,  amid  the  million  distractions  of  your 
active  life,  and  with  a  distance  so  wide  between  us,  alike 
of  time  and  space,  of  years  and  miles. 

Much  of  "  wild  and  wonderful  "  you  have  doubtless 
met  with  in  your  "  sight-seeing  "  pilgrimages  abroad  ; 
pilgrimages  which,  I  hope,  have  proved  pleasant  and 
profitable  to  you ;  but  pray  tell  me,  candidly,  if,  in  all 
the  sights  detailed  in  Murray's  hand-books,  those  you 
have  seen,  and  those  you  have  wisely  refrained  from 
seeing,  in  all  the  museums  you  have  visited,  from  the 
British  to  Barnum's,  have  you  met  a  greater  curiosity 
than  the  document  "which,  to  my  infinite  instruction 
and  delight,  you  have  done  me  the  kindness  to  forward 
with  your  letter. 

Instructive,  for  it  enables  me  to  appreciate  most 
feelingly  the  force  of  Burns's  lines  : 

"  O  wad  some  power  the  giftie  gie  us, 
To  see  oursels  as  others  see  us  !  " 

And  admonishes  me  (reversing  the  medal  of  Falstaff's 
expression)  of  the  heinousness  of  my  twofold  guilt,  that 
of  uttering  nonsense  myself,  and  causing  the  utterance 
of  nonsense  by  others. 

And  delight,  by  irresistibly  reminding  me  of  the 
hearty  laugh  with  which  I  greeted  the  appearance  of 
Listen  some  years  ago  in  London,  when  he  came  upon 
the  stage  mounted  upon  a  donkey,  and  repeated  George 
Colman's  lines,  "  Behold  a  pair  of  us !  "  and  by  bring- 


FIT;Z-GREENE  HALLECK.  $23 

ing  home  to  my  own  "  business  and  bosom  "  the  scene 
in  the  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  "  Enter  Bottom 
with  an. ass's  head,"  and  Quince's  exclamation,  "Oh 
Bottom,  thou  art  TRANSLATED  !  "  and  thereby  placing 
me,  in  all  the  pride  of  authorship,  upon  the  top  step 
of  the  ladder  of  literary  ambition. 

During  my  recent  illness  in  New  York,  Mr.  Bryant 
did  me  the  honor  to  make  my  sick-room  a  pleasant 
tme,  by  frequently  calling  upon  me.  I  wish  you  had 
been  present  when  he  read  the  translation.  His  appre 
ciation  of  the  fun  of  the  thing  was  visible  in  his  eyes. 
They  sparkled  like  stars  in  a  frosty  sky,  in  the  absence 
of  moon  or  cloud  ;  a  study  for  an  artist. 

Allow  me  to  hope  to  learn  very  soon  from  your  pen 
that  this  letter  has  reached  you,  and  tell  us  when  we 
are"  to  have  the  pleasure  of  welcoming  you  back  among 
us.  I  take  your  expressed  leave  to  enclose  a  letter  for 

M.  de  C .     Will  you,  after  perusing  it,  have  the 

goodness  to  forward  it  to  him,  and  greatly  oblige, 
My  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  gratefully, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

[TO  MRS.   RUSH.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Nov.  21,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  RUSH  :  I  am  very  grateful  for 
your  continued  kind  remembrance  of  me,  and  for  the 
courtesy  of  your  promise  to  like  my  next  war-song, 


524  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

notwithstanding  the  rejection  of  my  last  as  one  of  the 
unlucky  twelve  hundred,  and  I  think  it  my  bounden 
duty,  while  generously  declining  to  put  your  good 
nature  to  so  severe  a  test,  to  tell  you  frankly  a  melan 
choly  truth.  Sir  Walter  Scott  once  said  to  a  clerical 
friend  of  his  :  "I  am  afraid  that  I  am  fast  losing  my 
memory,  for  I  listened  attentively  to  your  yesterday's 
sermon,  and  to-day  I  have  forgotten  every  word  of  it." 
So  in  my  case,  I  owe  a  like  compliment  to  the  poetry 
of  Mrs.  Browning  and  Mr.  Tennyson ;  I  have  read 
many  of  them  over  and  over,  and  have  been  told  that 
they  are  all  exceedingly  beautiful,  and  yet  I  have  not 
at  this  moment  a  single  line  of  them  by  heart !  I  am 
certain,  therefore,  that  you,  whose  endurance  of  my  in 
toning  of  remembered  rhymes  won  for  you  of  old  the 
reputation  of  being  the  most  lady-like  of  listeners,  will 
agree  with  me  in  admitting  that  my  memory  is  gone, 
and  that  I  cannot  conscientiously  hereafter  ask  others 
to  remember  my  rhymes  while  confessing  my  inability 
to  remember  theirs.  Moreover,  sadly  and  seriously, 
is  this  Southern,  this  sin-born  war  of  ours,  worthy 
of  a  poet's  consecration  ?  a  poet,  whose  art,  whose 
attribute  it  is  to  make  the  dead  on  fields  of  battle, 
alike  the  victors  and  the  vanquished,  look  beauti 
ful  in  the  sunbeams  of  his  song.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  but  a  mutiny,  a  monster  mutiny,  whose  ring 
leaders  are  a  dozen  crime-worn  politicians,  determined 
to  keep  themselves  in  power,  and  will  sooner  or  later 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  $2$ 

find  its  Nemesis  in  the  blood  and  tears  of  a  servile  in 
surrection. 

If,  however  (to  end  my  letter  cheerfully),  the  recent 
entrapping  of  my  old  acquaintance,  John  Slidell,  should 
bring  us  a  war  with  England,  a  foe  "  worthy  of  our 
steel "  and  stanzas,  I  will  make  the  attempt  you  so 
flatteringly  request ;  and,  as  Homer  won  his  laurels  by 
singing  the  wrath  of  Achilles  for  the  loss  of  his  sweet 
heart,  I  will  strive  to  win  mine  by  singing  the  wrath  of 
John  Bull  for  the  captivity  of  John  Slidell. 

[TO   THE   SAME.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Dec.  7,  1861. 

There  is  a  saying  often,  nowadays,  attributed  to 
Talleyrand,  but  which  you  can  find  in  one  of  Gold 
smith's  essays,  and  might  have  found  in  some  book 
in  Noah's  library,  had  you  been  that  gentleman's  fel 
low-passenger  in  the  ark,  "  that  one  true  use  of  lan 
guage  is,  not  to  express,  but  to  conceal  our  thoughts." 
I  must  have  made  just  such  a  use  of  it  in  the  letter  you 
so  promptly  and  cheeringly  answer ;  for,  what  I  really 
meant,  you  seem  quite  to  have  misunderstood.  I  was 
not  one  of  the  "  Rejected,"  I  merely  feigned  to  believe 
that  you  thought  that  I  was,  and  deservedly,  one  of 
them,  and  wished  slyly  to  console  me  by  asking  me  to 
try  again.  And,  as  to  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  myself,  we 
but  meant  very  courteously  to  say,  he  with  reference  to 
the  sermon,  and  I  to  the  poems,  that  neither  of  them 


526  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF 

were  worth  remembering — high-treason,  I  grant  you, 
against  the  lady  and  the  laureate  on  my  part,  and  ex 
emptions  from  "  benefit  of  clergy  "  on  his. 

Hereafter  I  must  be  more  cautious  in  my  pleasant 
use  of  "  irony  and  raillery,"  but  the  fact  is  that,  being 
the  owner  of  railroad  bonds  which  (deuce  take  them) 
pay  no  interest,  I  strive  to  make  the  two  unlucky  words 
as  amusingly  available  as  I  can,  and  gather  honey  from 
the  hive  of  the  bee  that  stung  me. 

To  convince  you  that  my  memory  is  still,  as  of  old, 
"wax  to  receive  and  marble  to  retain,"  when  she  likes 
and  what  she  likes,  I  assure  you  that  I  have  recently 
got  the  enclosed  lines  and  many  otherslike  them,  from 
time  to  time,  by  heart  at  a  first  reading — an  infallible 
proof  of  a  good  memory  of  good  things.  Perhaps  they 
are  old  acquaintances  of  yours,  but  my  reading  of  new 
works  has  of  late  years  been  so  very  limited,  that  they 
are  strangers  to  me.  Please  enlighten  me  as  to  their 
authorship. 

I  take  great  pleasure  in  congratulating  you  on  hav 
ing  such  a  delightful  companion  as  young  grandmother 
Janet,  in  your  visit  to  the  fortress  and  the  camp.  Pray 
did  your  passports  describe  you,  the  one  as  Fille  du 
Regiment  and  the  other  as  Florence  Nightingale  ?  If 
so,  which  was  which?  Should  the  old  lady,  as  the 
commodore  used  to  call  her  when  she  was  fifteen,  be 
near  you  still,  will  you  do  me  the  kindness  to  present 
to  her  my  very  best  good  wishes,  and  say  that  I  hope  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  527 

next  time  I  come  to  town,  for  almost  the  single  purpose 
of  seeing  her  and  hers,  I  shall  find  her  in  her  nest,  and 
no  longer  on  the  wing. 

[TO  THE   SAME.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  January  31,  1862. 

I  owe  you  an  apology  for  my  long  delay  in  answer 
ing  your  last  letter,  but  I  have  been  waiting  from  hour 
to  hour  for  news  from  abroad,  enabling  me  to  deter 
mine  whether  my  contemplated  epic  and  your  kind  ac 
ceptance  of  its  dedication  were  things  "to  be  or  not 
to  be." 

At  length  the  agony  is  over.  After  reading  the 
enclosed,  I  unstring  my  harp  in  despair.  No  verse  of 
mine  can  rival  the  prose  of  The  Times  in  viperous 
vituperation.  What  a  delightful  "bank  of  violets  " 
the  article  is  "  for  the  sweet  South  to  breathe  upon  !  " 
What  a  "belle  alliance"  is  hers  likely  to  be  after  such 
a  reception  of  her  "  proud  Dukes  of  Somerset "  and 
her  peerless  "  Sir  Philip  Sidneys  !  " 

I  am  gratefully  sensible  of  the  compliment  paid  me 
by  the  persons  you  mention,  but  I  must  crave  their 
pardon  for  bashfully  and  becomingly  declining  to  ap 
pear  in  print  as  that  "  grand  personage  "  of  the  press, 
a  "reliable  authority."  I  do  not  recollect  the  portion 
of  my  letter  you  allude  to,  but,  if  in  it  I  spoke  well 
and  wisely,  it  was  not  the  first  time  in  my  life  that 
I  have  anticipated,  in  conversation  with  you,  what 


528 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


you  were  about  to  say,  and  how  well  you  were  about 
to  say  it. 

It  seems  quite  probable  that  England,  in  her  anx 
ious  desire  to  do  us  wrong  somehow,  will  soon  find,  "  in 
fresh  fields  and  pastures  new,"  a  fitting  theme  for  her 
wrath  and  my  rhyme.  If  so,  you  will  hear  of  us.  Her 
present  pretence  for  grief  and  growling,  the  "  sinking 
of  the  stone  fleet,"  is  alliterally  alluring,  but  that  omin 
ous  word  "  sinking "  is,  unluckily,  applicable  to  a 
"  song  "  as  well  as  a  ship. 

Believe  me,  dear  Mrs.  Rush, 

Truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

In  1862,  there  was  exhibited  in  New  York  a  paint 
ing  by  F.  O.  C.  Darley,  representing  a  group  of  promi 
nent  American  authors  at  Sunnyside,  including  Irving, 
Cooper,  Halleck,  Prescott,  Bancroft,  Bryant,  Longfel 
low,  and  other  literary  celebrities.  Of  this  picture,  the 
poet  says,  in  a  letter  to  Pierre  M.  Irving:  "  It  is  now 
nearly  a  year  since  I  visited  New  York,  and  I,  thus 
far,  have  not  yet  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  paint 
ing  of  your  uncle's  friends,  in  which  I  am  honored  with 
a  place ;  but  I  understand  that  its  artist  has  consider 
ately  made  me  the  ugliest-looking  fellow  of  the  group. 
Remembering,  as  I  do,  the  boast  of  the  backwoods 
man  that  he  had  the  swiftest  horse,  the  surest  rifle,  the 
prettiest  sister,  and  the  ugliest  dog  in  all  Kentucky, 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  529 

meaning  a  compliment  to  each,  I  feel  highly  flattered 
in  being  portrayed  as  '  Poor  Tray/  who,  you  know, 
is  renowned  as  the  ugliest,  the  fondest,  and  the  most 
faithful  of  all  dogs  in  song  and  story." 

Halleck  always  entertained  a  high  opinion  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  military  abilities,  which  was  illustrated  in 
the  darkest  days  of  the  rebellion,  i.  <?.,  in  the  spring  of 
1863.  Meeting  a  venerable  man  of  nearly  ninety,  who 
was  extremely  feeble,  he  said :  "  Well,  my  friend,  if 
you  are  soon  taken  from  us,  as  you  anticipate,  I  wish, 
when  you  reach  the  other  world,  that  you  would  do 
me  the  favor  to  ask  General  Jackson  if  he  won't -return 
and  take  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  for  a 
few  weeks  ?  "  About  the  same  time  the  poet  writes  : 
"  I  refrain  from  alluding  to  this  deplorable  and  never- 
to-be-ended  war.  Would  to  God  we  could  have  my 
old  friend  Jackson  back  again  to  put  down  this  accursed 
rebellion,  and  restore  the  blessings  of  peace  to  our 
bleeding  country  !  *  *  *  While  regretting  the  death 
of  your  gallant  colonel,1  I  cannot  but  rejoice  to  see  you 
advanced  to  the  head  of  your  regiment.  Were  I  fifty 
years  younger,  I  should  like  to  follow  you  and  your 
flag.  You  must  find  striking  sabres  with  the  Southern 
ers  as  warm  work  as  did  your  Scottish  ancestors  and 
mine,  when  they  crossed  swords  with  the  English  bor 
derers.  Come  and  see  me  when  the  siege  is  ended,  and 
fight  your  battles  o'er  again." 

1  Warren  Stewart,  Colonel  Fifteenth  Illinois  Cavalry. 
23 


t-p  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

A  month  after  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  I  obtained  a 
furlough,  and  during  my  sojourn  in  the  North  visited 
Guilford.  I  found  the  poet  much  changed  in  appear 
ance.  Alluding  to  his  white  beard,  which  he  had  al 
lowed  to  grow  very  long,  he  jestingly  remarked :  "I 
was  afraid  I  should  be  taken  for  twenty-five,  and  so  I 
have  whitewashed  my  beard  to  avoid  the  draft"  In 
introducing  me  it  was  usually — "  My  friend  Colonel 

,  who  captured  Vicksburg,"  adding  after  a  pause  ; 

"  with  the  assistance  of  General  Grant  and  fifty  thou 
sand  others."  He  alluded  hopefully  and  cheerfully  to 
the  speedy  termination  of  the  war,  remarking  that  it 
was  a  "  mutiny  which  must  be  put  down."  We  wan 
dered  together  among  the  woods  musical  with  birds, 
through  the  fields  brilliant  with  wild-flowers,  among 
them  the  great  white  and  purple  lilies,  and  that  old 
Puritan  flower  Jack-in-the-pulpit ;  and  visited  many 
places  of  historic  interest,  among  the  number  the  old 
stone  house,  built  in  1639,  by  the  first  settlers  of  Guil 
ford,  and  first  occupied  by  that  godly  man,  Henry 
Whitfield,  of  whom  it  has  been  said,  that  "  he  could 
on  urgent  occasions  be  as  liberal  with  the  heads  of  his 
enemies  as  he  was  ordinarily  with  the  heads  of  his  ser 
mons  ;  "  and  the  cellar  where,  during  colonial  days,  the 
regicides  Goff  and  Whalley  remained  secreted  for  sev 
eral  months,  daily  supplied  with  provisions  by  Governor 
Leete,  who  publicly  manifested  an  excessive  zeal  for 
their  capture,  at  the  very  time  that  he  availed  himself 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^l 

of  the  common  belief  in  witchcraft  to  throw  their  pur 
suers  off  the  track.  Of  the  many  stories,  of  his  jokes 
and  repartees,  and  of  his  conversations  "  in  boyish  jest 
or  manly  earnest,"  I  have  only  couleur  de  rose  recollec 
tions,  having  made  no  memoranda  at  the  time.  One 
capital  story  I  do,  however,  recollect,  as  I  distinctly  re 
member  the  delight  and  enjoyment  with  which  the 
poet  related  it :  "In  one  of  the  barbarous  fights  be 
tween  the  natives  of  Caithness  and  Sutherland,  the  lat 
ter  were  on  the  point  of  being  routed,  when  a  party  of 
the  clan  Mackay  very  opportunely  came  to  their  as 
sistance,  and  the  unfortunate  Caithnessians  were,  with 
a  solitary  exception,  literally  butchered.  The  greatest 
havoc  was  committed  by  a  powerful  Highlander,  be 
longing  to  the  aforesaid  clan,  who  wielded  a  huge 
Lochaber  axe.  He  took  up  his  position  in  a  narrow 
pass  through  which  the  fugitives  attempted  to  escape, 
and  cut  down  every  one  of  them  as  they  came  up,  with 
the  exception  of  this  one  individual,  who  managed  to 
evade  the  merciless  weapon  and  got  safe  home,  like 
one  of  Job's  messengers,  to  tell  the  mournful  tale. 
Many  years  after  this,  when  the  Strathnaver  warrior 
was  on  his  deathbed,  he  was  visited  by  the  priest,  who 
earnestly  advised  him  to  confess  his  sins,  and  '  make  a 
clean  breast  of  it,'  now  that  he  was  about  to  leave  the 
world  and  appear  in  the  presence  of  the  great  Judge. 
1  Is  there  any  thing,  Donald,'  inquired  the  priest,  '  that 
lies  particularly  heavy  on  your  conscience  ? '  '  No,' 


532  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

said  the  dying  Highlander,  raising  himself  up  with  a 
great  effort  from  his  pillow,  and  striking  the  bed  with 
his  clinched  fist,  *  no,  nothing,  but  that  I  allowed  that 
vagabond  of  a  Caithnessman  to  escape  !  '  " 

In  January,  1864,  Halleck  broke  his  long  poetical 
silence  by  a  poem  of  about  three  hundred  lines,  entitled 
"  Young  America,"  for  which  he  was  paid  five  hun 
dred  dollars.  The  whole  sum  received  by  Mr.  Halleck 
for  the  various  editions  of  his  poems,  including  his 
poetical  contributions  to  periodicals,  was  sixteen  thou 
sand  dollars.  If  to  this  are  added  one  thousand  for 
editing  Byron's  works,  and  half  that  amount  for  mak 
ing  his  selections  from  the  British  poets,  we  have  a 
total  of  seventeen  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  as  the 
amount  received  by  the  poet  for  the  literary  labors  of  a  ' 
lifetime.  An  English  writer  has  just  been  paid  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  a  new  novel !  "  Young  America," 
originally  written  for  the  New-  York  Ledger,  was  after 
ward  published  in  a  small  volume,  with  illustrations. 
It  is  rather  a  series  of  lyrics,  connected  by  a  thread  of 
description,  than  a  poem,  and  a  considerable  portion 
of  it  is  devoted  to  war,  the  topic  uppermost  in  all 
American  minds  at  that  time.  The  aspirations,  follies, 
and  precocity  of  Young  America  are  satirized  in  a  pleas 
ing  manner,  if  not  with  all  the  poet's  early  strength  and 
vigor.  Many  critics  as  well  as  admirers  pronounced 
these  beautiful  immortelles  of  his  Indian  summer  equal 
to  those  of  his  best  days — as  characterized  by  the  same 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  533 

grace  and  fervor,  and  destined  to  meet  with  the  same 
popularity  accorded  to  the  happiest  efforts  of  his 
younger  Muse.  But  the  prediction  has  not  been  ful 
filled.  Of  "  Young  America,"  the  poet  says,  in  a 
note  to  the  writer,  dated  February,  1864  :  "I  took  the 
liberty,  some  time  since,  of  shipping  by  mail  to  New 
Orleans  a  package  of  weak  rhymes.  Had  they  suffi 
cient  strength  to  reach  you  alive  ?  "  To  Mrs.  Rush  he 
writes  a  year  later  on  the  same  subject : 

"  I  am  very  grateful  to  the  two  pre-Raphaelite  pic 
tures  which  embellish  my  <  Young  America,'  partly 
because  they  have  uplifted  its  price  from  five  cents  to 
fifty,  and  particularly  because  they  have  upwaked 
your  friendly  recollections  of  me,  and  have  added  one 
more  to  your  always-wished-for  and  welcome  letters. 

"  I  was  not  disappointed  by  your  silence  on  the 
subject  of  the  verses  when  I  sent  them  to  you  a  year 
ago.  In  these  '  sensation '  times  I  cannot  expect 
them  to  be  liked,  or  even  tolerated.  There  is,  I  am 
aware,  nothing  in  them  resembling  Miss  Braddon's 
exciting  themes  in  prose,  or  Enoch  Arden's  story  of 
polygamy  (so  decent,  delicate,  and  decorous)  in  verse. 

"  Yet  thers  is  'balm  in  Gilead,'  for,  to  soothe  and 
strengthen  me  against  your  so  deeply-lamented  dis 
approval  of  them,  your  neighbor,  Mr.  Allibone,  the 
author  of  the  best  book  of  its  kind  in  any  language, 
and  with  whom,  although  I  have  never  yet  met  him,  I 
have  the  honor  of  corresponding,  has  sent  me  a  notice 


CJ34  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

of  them,  written  by  a  relation  of  his,  and  published 
in  your  City  Item  newspaper  of  3ist  December  last. 
Pray  borrow  a  copy,  and  you  will  learn  how  much  of 
all  that  is  good  and  graceful,  etc.,  etc.,  you  have  missed 
finding  in  them,  and  (he  blushes  as  he  writes  it)  in 
their  ingenious  and  ingenuous  author  ! 

"  With  regard  to  the  'War-Odes'  you  so  flatter 
ingly  solicit,  I  can  only  remind  you  of  my  remarks, 
and  of  my  reasons  to.the  contrary,  expressed  in  a  letter 
some  four  years  ago.  Out  of  this  '  monster  mutiny,' 
as  I  then  called  it,  no  poetry  destined  to  live  long  can 
ever,  in  my  opinion,  be  wrought.  The  <  Great  Rebel 
lion  '  in  England  produced  nothing  in  the  way  of 
poetry  except  Butler's  '  Hudibras,'  and  our  terrible  war 
does  not,  thus  far,  present  any  themes  for  pleasantry. 
If  rebellion  could  prompt  immortal  '  War-Odes,'  why 
did  not  Milton  give  us  one  ?  In  prose  he  mingled  in 
its  strife  most  earnestly  and  ardently,  but,  rather  than 
desecrate  his  genius  by  so  doing  in  verse,  he  wisely 
preferred  '  going  to  the  devil'  for  a  subject." 

[TO    MRS.    VINCENZO   BOTTA.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  March  30,  1864. 

DEAR  MRS.  BOTTA  :  The  reason  for  the  brevity  of 
your  note  of  the  28th  grieves  me  sadly.  Now  that  you 
are  about  to  become  one  of  Milton's 

"  Store  of  ladies  whose  bright  eyes 

Rain  influence,  and  judge  the  prize,"  etc., 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  535 

those  bright  eyes  ought  not  to  be  doing  penance  for 
the  mischief  they  have  done  to  young  hearts  in  their 
girlhood.  Pray  take  quick  and  good  care  of  them,  for 
your  own  sake  and  for  all  our  sakes. 

I  hope  that  their  "influence"  may  be  "rained" 
over  all  sorts  of  " porte-monnaies  "  at  the  "  Fair,"  to  its 
exceeding  advantage ;  and  am  quite  vexed  (reprobate 
and  immoral  as  I  am)  at  our  friend  Dr.  Bellows  and 
his  brother  Dissenters  (especial  favorites,  you  recollect, 
of  the  reverend  joker,  Sydney  Smith),  for  their  de 
nunciation  of  lotteries,  thereby  depriving  you  of  the 
pleasure  of  awarding  the  prizes  Milton  names. 

My  old-fashioned  reverence  for  things  sacred  was 
shocked  sometime  since  by  hearing  a  "Maine-law" 
man,  when  reminded  that  our  Saviour  had  sanctioned 
wine-drinking  by  a  miracle,  say,  ( '  I  admit  the  fact ; 
but  were  He  now  on  earth  He  would  not  dare  to  out 
rage  public  opinion  to  such  a  degree ;  "  and  now  it 
seems  that  clergymen,  claiming  to  be  successors  of  the 
eleven  apostles,  pronounce  their  conduct  in  choosing  a 
twelfth  by  lottery  (see  Acts  i.  26)  an  outrage  upon  the 
purity  and  piety  of  the  party-members  of  the  New- 
York  Legislature  !  "  Truly,"  as  Horace  Greeley  often 
says,  quoting  from  Galileo,  "  the  world  moves  !  "  For 
your  again  kindly  repeated  proffer  of  a  home  to  me,  I 
am  more  and  more  grateful ;  but  I  fear  that  my  visit  to 
town  next  week  will  be  but  a  flying  visit,  and  that  I 
shall  find  no  time  to  rest  my  wings  in  such  a  comfort- 


536  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

able  nest.  You  must  pardon  me,  therefore,  for  beg 
ging  you  not  to  reserve  a  room  or  make  any  other 
preparation  for  me.  When  I  have  the  pleasure  of  call 
ing  upon  you  we  can  discourse  fully  upon  all  hospitable 
topics. 

I  have  made  this  letter  so  much  longer  than  it 
ought  to  be,  to  make  up  for  the  shortness  of  yours. 
The  two  together  make  one  of  the  regulation  length. 
With  my  best  regards  to  Mr.  Botta,  believe  me,  dear 
lady,  Most  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

In  one  of  his  "  Letters  from  Idlewild,"  addressed  to 
his  younger  partner  of  the  Home  Journal,  in  June, 
1864,  N.  P.  Willis  writes :  "I  shook  hands  with  an  old 
friend  in  Broadway  a  few  days  ago,  and  I  admired  once 
more  the  truthful  and  frank  mould  of  his  manly  fea 
tures,  and  heard  once  more  the  music  of  his  well-toned 
voice.  I  could  not  but  think  what  personal  authority, 
what  natural  empire,  as  it  were,  had  been — by  the  en 
tire  seclusion  from  the  public — needlessly  foregone  ! 
With  such  advantages  of  physiognomy  and  manners, 
so  winning  a  look  and  voice,  how  is  it  that  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck  has  never  let  himself  be  known  to  audiences  ? 
With  his  well-won  fame  as  the  poet  whom  everybody 
is  ready  to  admire,  he  retires  to  his  remote  home  in 
Connecticut,  coming  to  New  York  only  as  the  most 
retiring  of  visitors  to  the  most  secluded  of  hotels — thus 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  537 

'  biding  his  time,'  while  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of 
those  who  appreciate  and  fervently  admire  him  do  not 
even  know  him  by  sight !  Halleck's  genial  counte 
nance,  and,  still  more,  his  full  and  genial  cadences  of 
voice,  suited  him  especially  for  a  lecturer.  What  a 
pity  that  so  admirably-formed  a  creature  should  die  (as 
he  is  likely  to  !)  without  the  eye-and-ear  homage  for 
which  Nature  gifted  him  !  " 

[TO   REV.    SOLYMAN   BROWN.] 

GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Aug.  25,  1866. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  very  grateful  for  your  con 
tinued  remembrance  of  me,  and  for  the  kind  interest 
in  my  present  and  future  welfare  evinced  in  your  pleas 
ant  letter  of  the  22d  instant ;  and,  although  my  dis 
tance  from  large  libraries  and  collections  of  books  has 
prevented  me  from  profiting  to  the  extent  I  wish  by 
the  perusal  of  the  works  you  mention,  I  agree  with  you 
most  earnestly  in  highly  prizing  them  and  their  ven 
erated  author.  Still,  I  must  crave  your  pardon  for  re 
minding  you  of  the  preference  given  to  the  home  of 
her  youth  and  its  teachings  by  the  English  lady,  who, 
after  a  long  journey  over  our  growing  and  still  un 
settled  Western  States,  said,  "  Oh  dear,  how  I  do  wish 
to  find  a  town  that  is  finished  /  " 

My  own  case,  in  connection  with  religious  reading, 
is  somewhat  similar  to  hers,  and  the  more  I  strive  to 
find,  in  new  books  on  sacred  subjects,  food  for  the 
23* 


538  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

soul's  health,  in  the  beauty  of  their  prairies,  and  their 
lakes  and  mountains,  the  more  gladly  do  I  return  to 
the  old  pastures  amid  which  my  youth  was  nurtured, 
and  to  the  One  Book,  now  many,  many  centuries  old. 
I  am  happy  to  learn  from  your  so  touchingly  eloquent 
allusion  to  the  family  and  parsonage,  blessings  of  your 
present  position  in  life,  that  you  have  learned  from 
that  Book,  "  in  whatsoever  state  you  are,  therewith  to 
be  content ;  "  and  hoping  to  hear  often  from  you,  and 
to  congratulate  you  upon  your  constant  continuation  in 
well-doing  and  in  well-being,  I  beg  you  to  believe  me, 
my  dear  sir, 

Most  truly  yours, 

FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 

William  A.  Jones,  who  enjoyed  the  poet's  friend 
ship  for  many  years,  has  favored  me  with  the  following 
reminiscences  :  "I  did  not  personally  become  ac 
quainted  with  Mr.  Halleck  till  the  summer  of  1849, 
when  on  a  visit  to  Mr.  H.  N.  Elliot,  of  Guilford.  Mr. 
Halleck  did  me  the  honor  to  call  upon  me,  having 
known  my  father,  which  call  I  returned,  and  had  a 
very  pleasant  visit.  From  time  to  time,  up  to  July, 
1866,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  him  occasionally 
on  his  periodical  visits  to  New  York,  in  a  casual  way, 
and  enjoyed  a  number  of  short  conversations  with  him. 

"  During  this  interval,  also,  I  received  a  few  of  his 
sparkling  notes  and  letters,  two  of  which,  I  am  sorry 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  539 

to  say,  I  was  foolish  enough  to  give  away  as  autographs 
and  relics  of  the  poet.  July,  1866,  my  wife  and  self 
passed  at  Guilford,  and  saw  Mr.  Halleck  almost  daily. 
He  called,  and  made  good  long  calls,  enlivened  by  his 
charming  vivacity,  anecdote,  ready  illustration,  and 
brilliant  fancy  ;  by  his  ever  apt  and  agreeable  reminis 
cences  ;  by  his  playful  satire  and  wit ;  by  his  fine  sense 
and  admirable  taste  and  temper.  I  regret  that  I  did 
not  note  down  a  variety  of  good  things  he  uttered  or 
recalled. 

"  I  returned  his  visits,  and  found  him  always  most 
cordial  and  conversable.  It  was  a  most  grateful  sight 
to  me  to  witness  the  fond  pride  of  his  affectionate  sister 
in  him  and  in  his  conversational  powers.  She  seemed 
to  enjoy  his  jests,  and  stories,  and  quotations,  as  if  for 
the  first  time,  and  with  an  original  relish.  He  was  a 
great  walker  for  a  man  of  seventy-six,  and  took  his 
daily  stroll  to  the  hotel  at  the  Point,  chatted  with  the 
visitors,  his  old  and  new  acquaintances.  He  was  regu 
larly  at  the  post-office  when  the  New- York  mail  came 
in,  and  almost  always  had  a  budget.  His  New-York 
friends  kept  him  supplied  with  magazines,  papers, 
pamphlets,  etc.,  etc.  I  often  accompanied  him  in 
these  walks,  and  became  more  his  admirer  than  ever. 
He  had  a  fine,  quaint  nature,  evinced  in  many  ways ; 
always  had  a  kind  word  for  children,  and  sometimes  for 
his  favorite  canine  acquaintances ;  nodded,  or  bowed,  or 
smiled,  saluting  every  one  most  appropriately,  accord- 


54O  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

ing  to  his  degree  and  station — a  truly  courteous,  gal 
lant,  and  chivalric  gentleman,  in  the  best  sense  of  that 
abused  word.  Earlier,  when  a  stage-struck  boy,  about 
l833-'34-'35?  I  used  to  see  Mr.  Halleck  at  the  theatre 
sometimes,  with  (I  suppose)  his  sister.  As  a  youth 
(i837-'38),  I  often  encountered  him  at  his  then  barber 
shop,  southeast  corner  of  Broadway  and  Prince  Street ; 
saw  him  going  into  and  coming  out  of  Mr.  Astor's 
office,  and  met  him  in  stages  and  in  the  street.  Early 
in  the  day  he  looked  the  man  of  business,  but  in  the 
afternoon  and  evening  he  was  radiant  with  wit  and  fine 
spirits. 

"  I  can  add  nothing  to  what  every  critic  worth  the 
name  says  of  his  choice  poetical  works.  He  is  the  only 
American  poet  read  and  beloved  by  all  classes.  Bryant 
is  more  especially  the  scholar's  and  philosopher's  poet, 
and  Longfellow  the  Apollo  of  the  young  ladies. 

"  As  a  talker,  his  resources,  his  readiness,  his  gay- 
ety,  his  good-nature,  his  hatred  of  cant  and  love  of 
simplicity,  his  affectionate  disposition,  and  his  love  of 
society,  made  him  a  delightful  companion.  As  a  man, 
he  realized  Burns's  ideal — independent,  yet  most  con 
siderate  ;  manly,  yet  courteous ;  kind,  yet  detesting 
sentimentality ;  honorable  in  all  things  ;  faithful  to  his 
friends,  and  generous  he  would  have  been  to  any 
enemy,  if  such  a  frank,  genial  nature  ever  had  or  could 
have  had  an  enemy.  I  believe  he  was  a  pure  man  '  in 
the  last  recesses '  of  his  heart  and  mind. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^x 

"  To  a  pretentious  professor,  who  proposed  a  course 
of  lectures  on  architecture,  and  who  asked  his  aid  and 
countenance,  and  especially  in  reference  to  authorities 
on  the  art,  Mr.  Halleck  replied  that  he  never  had  read 
but  one  work  on  architecture  in  all  his  life,  '  The  House 
that  Jack  built.''  In  this  pleasant,  satirical  way  he 
pricked  the  bubbles  of  conceit  and  vanity. 

"  He  was  a  good  French  scholar;  and  of  modern 
writers  I  heard  him  speak  at  length  and  with  high  en 
comium  of  George  Sand  (Madame  Dudevant)  and  of 
Berenger.  He  read  Italian,  and  loved  the  literature. 
One  evening,  in  his  sitting-room,  he  repeated  the 
opening  lines  of  the  '  Jerusalem,'  and  dwelt  on  the 
music  and  beauty  of  the  language.  He  was  a  wide 
reader,  and  of  catholic  liberality  of  taste  and  apprecia 
tion,  ranging  from  '  Tasso '  to  the  New-Englander, 
and  from  French  novels  to  works  of  devotion.  He 
enjoyed  all,  each  in  its  place  and  at  the  proper  season. 
Yet  he  was  sometimes  a  partly-prejudiced  critic,  and 
fond  of  broaching  and  sustaining  literary  and  historical 
heresies,  for  the  sake,  as  I  always  thought,  of  intellec 
tual  exercise  and  to  promote  lively  discussion. 

"  I  was  under  the  impression  that  he  was  a  Roman 
Catholic ;  but,  perhaps,  it  was  but  an  heretical  taste, 
a  piece  of  poetical  paradox.  That  he  was  a  genuine, 
practical  Christian  man,  '  without  knowing  it,'  as  Pope 
said  of  Dr.  Arbuthnot,  I  have  not  the  shadow  of  a 
doubt." 


542  LIFE  AND  LETTERS. 

The  venerable  poet,  Richard  H.  Dana,  writes  to  his 
friend  Mr.  Jones  in  August,  1866  :  "  Your  account  of 
Mr.  Halleck  put  new  life  in  me,  or,  rather,  renewed 
my  old.  What  a  blessing  to  be  in  full  possession  of 
such  a  cheerful  old  age,  with  all  the  faculties  wide 
awake,  and  so  many  too,  as  his  !  I  have  seen  him  but 
twice,  and  that  years  back — oh,  dear,  how  many  ! — the 
first  a  mere  call;  the  second,  at  dinner  at  Bryant's. 
After  dinner,  he  and  I  talked  monarchism,  with  nobili 
ty,  and  a  third  order,  enough  to  prevent  despotism — 
nothing  more.  Bryant  sat  by,  hearing  us.  '  Why,' 
said  he,  '  you  are  not  in  earnest  ? '  '  Never  more  so,' 
was  our  answer.  Bryant  still  holds  to  simple  democra 
cy,  I  believe.  How  far  Mr.  Halleck  may  have  modi 
fied  his  creed,  I  know  not.  For  myself,  I  am  only 
better  than  ever  satisfied  what  an  incorrigible  creature 
man  is  to  govern  under  the  wisest  adapted  forms.  But 
man  will  have  to  come  to  orders  and  degrees  at  least." 


CHAPTER    X. 
1867. 

William  Gilmore  Simms's  Recollections  of  Halleck. — The  Poet  visits  New 
York. — His  Stories. — Letters  to  the  Author. — Halleck  on  Junius. — 
Second  Visit  to  New  York.— Anecdote  of  Dr.  Johnson.— Halleck's 
Marvellous  Memory. — Repeating  "  Fanny  "  and  "  Pleasures  of  Hope." 
—Dr.  Channing  and  Miss  Sedgwick.—  Halleck  at  Home.— The  Last 
Rose  of  Summer.— A  Political  Letter.— Last  Visit  to  New  York.— Con 
fined  to  his  Hotel. — Conversation. — Returns  to  Guilford. — His  Last 
Letter  and  Verses. — Illness. — Death. — Funeral. — Tributes  to  his  Mem 
ory. 

]R.  HALLECK'S  friend  and  brother-poet,  Wil 
liam  Gilmore  Simms,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a 
letter  to  the  author,  says  :  "  I  am  sorry  that  I  can  yield 
you  nothing  which  could  in  any  degree  assist  you  in 
your  undertaking,  for,  though  I  had  the  pleasure  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  Halleck  some  thirty  years 
ago,  I  do  not  now  remember  that  any  correspondence 
passed  between  us.  We  met  occasionally  during  my 
summer  visits  annually  to  the  North,  and  I  always 
found  him  a  pleasant  companion,  genial  and  sparkling 
with  humor,  quick  at  repartee,  and  inclining  to  the 
sarcastic  when  speaking  of  pretension  and  pretenders. 


544  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

There  were  parties  any  reference  to  whom  always  pro 
voked  him  to  scornful  or  cynical  remarks.  Poetasters, 
of  whom  New  York  always  had  its  large  proportion, 
were  discussed  with  a  quiet  contempt  and  dismissed 
with  some  biting  sarcasm.  I  remember  that  Halleck 
seemed  to  feel  a  special  dislike  to  publishers,  of  very  few 
of  whom  did  he  entertain  a  favorable  opinion.  When 
the  copyright  law  (international)  was  a  subject  of  first 
discussion,  I  remember  well  the  biting  scorn  with  which 
he  expressed  himself  in  reference  to  the  action  of  the 
members  of  a  certain  publishing-house,  some  of  whom 
had,  on  a  previous  occasion,  avowed  themselves  friendly 
to  the  proposed  bill  of  international  copyright ;  and  one 
of  the  company  assumed  from  this,  that,  for  the  sake 
of  mere  consistency,  the  house  would  not  oppose  it. 
'  Consistency !  '  said  Halleck,  with  a  scornful  laugh ; 
1  these  fellows  are  consistent  in  nothing  but  pursuit  of 
gain.  They  have  no  dread  of  inconsistency,  having  long 
since  survived  all  sense  of  shame.' 

"  With  the  few  whom  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  liked, 
and  with  whom  he  associated  on  equal  terms,  he  was 
genial,  graceful,  never  wanton  of  speech,  and  al 
ways  full  of  chat  and  pleasant  humor ;  apt  always  and 
prompt  at  reply  ;  with  that  spirit  of  repartee  and 
easy  wit  which  makes  so  much  of  the  charm  and  spirit 
of  the  '  Croaker '  epistles.  His  geniality,  with  such  a 
circle,  was  always  active ;  and  he  relished  nothing  bet 
ter  than  a  snug  and  select  party,  '  fit  though  few.'  He 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  545 

was  both  socially  and  politically  a  natural  aristocrat, 
and  did  not  cheapen  himself  by  any  too  easy  entrance 
into  society.  He  required  to  respect  men,  mentally, 
before  associating  with  them,  and  seemed  to  me  to  re 
volt  from  all  associations  of  trade,  in  spite  of  all  his  life 
long  connection  with  it,  and,  perhaps,  because  of  that 
connection.  I  may  add  that  he  seemed  very  careless 
of  authorship,  and,  though  he  did  not  undervalue  the 
credit  which  he  had  himself  derived  from  it,  he  made 
no  ambitious  or  feverish  struggles  after  fame  or  public 
favor.  He  was  above  all  meanness,  and  never  forgot 
the  gentleman  in  the  poet.  You  will  note  that,  in  his 
satire,  the  weapon  he  uses  is  the  small  sword,  not  the 
bludgeon.  It  is  a  polished  blade,  and,  however  mortal 
the  thrust,  it  did  not  mangle  the  victim.  The  grace 
and  dexterity  of  his  satire  were  habitual  to  him  in  so 
ciety,  and  the  wit  and  humor  of  his  ordinary  conversa 
tion  are  admirably  illustrated  by  his  satirical  poetry, 
such  as  'Fanny'  and  the  'Croakers.'  That  he  wrote 
too  little  is  a  subject  of  popular  complaint :  had  he  es 
teemed  the  popular  judgment,  he  would  probably  have 
shown  himself  more  voluminous.  But  for  this,  as  I 
have  every  reason  to  think,  he  entertained  a  most  sov 
ereign  contempt,  which  was  even  extended  somewhat 
to  those  who  showed  themselves  more  solicitous  of 
popular  favor,  especially  the  class  of  politicians." 

During  the  long  period  of  Mr.  Halleck's  residence 
at  Guilford,  after  abandoning  business  pursuits,  it  was 


546  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

his  habit  to  make  two  or  three  visits  each  year  to  the 
city  where  he  had  spent  more  than  one-half  of  his  long 
life.  On  these  occasions  he  would  usually  remain 
about  a  week,  revisiting  many  of  the  old  familiar  faces 
and  scenes,  but  avoiding  any  thing  like  lionizing.  He 
loved  to  loiter  along  Broadway  and  the  Bowery,  to 
drop  in  at  the  book-stores,  the  Mercantile  Library,  the 
studios  of  his  artist  acquaintances,  the  sanctums  of 
some  of  his  literary  friends,  and  to  spend  an  evening  at 
the  opera  or  the  theatre. 

Mr.  Halleck  visited  New  York  in  April,  1867,  and 
while  in  the  city  I  had  the  honor  of  spending  several 
evenings  in  his  company.  Many  of  his  delightful  con 
versations,  his  anecdotes,  andjeux  &  esprit  I  can  dis 
tinctly  recall,  but  I  cannot  convey  to  the  reader  his 
animated  gestures,  his  expressive  and  genial  counte 
nance,  nor  "  the  frank  lifting  of  his  cordial  eyes  " — the 
indescribable  charm  of  his  whole  manner.  If  by  any 
accident  the  poet  told  an  anecdote  that  the  listeners 
had  read  or  heard  before,  it  was  so  much  improved  by 
his  manner  and  additions,  that  it  possessed  all  the  in 
terest  of  a  novelty.  In  this  respect  he  resembled  Scott, 
who,  upon  one  occasion,  was  addressed  by  Lord  Eldon 
with  "  Why,  Sir  Walter,  that's  a  story  of  mine  you've 
been  telling,  but  you  have  so  decorated  it  that  I  scarce 
ly  know  it  again."  "  Do  you  think,"  replied  Scott, 
"  I'd  tell  one  of  your  stories,  or  of  anybody's,  and  not 
put  a  laced  coat  and  cocked  hat  upon  it  ?  "  The  con- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  547 

versation  turning  one  evening^to  the  subject  of  duel 
ling,  Halleck  mentioned  Mr.  Luttrell  relating  at  Hol 
land  House  the  case  of  an  Irish  clergyman,  who  was 
much  offended  at  being  called  a  " pluralist "  and  said, 
"  If  you  don't  take  care,  you  may  discover  that  I  am  a 
duellist"  Sydney  Smith,  who  was  present,  took  this  up 
and  said,  "  I  suppose  there  is  scarcely  a  clergyman  in 
Ireland  who  has  not  been  out.  I  am  told  they  settle 
these  matters  when  the  afternoon's  service  is  over.  I 
have  seen  a  parson's  challenge,  '  Sir,  meet  me  on  the 
first  Sunday  after  the  Epiphany.'  "  Another  story  on 
the  same  subject,  was  of  a  well-known  and  distinguished 
notary  at  Paris,  who,  while  breakfasting  at  the  Cafe  de 
Foy,  indulged  in  some  loud  animadversions  upon  Mar 
shal  Marmont's  conduct  at  Essonne.  "  Sir,  you  shall 
give  me  satisfaction,"  said,  suddenly,  another  consom- 
mateur  present,  and  who  hastily  approached  the  table 
with  his  mustaches  erect  in  anger.  "Are  you  Mar 
shal  Marmont?"  quietly  inquired  the  notary.  "  I 
have  not  that  honor,  but  I  am  his  chief  aide-de-camp." 
"  Give  me  your  card  then,  sir ;  I  will  send  you  my 
head  clerk." 

A  bon-mot  of  which  Fox  was  the  subject  was  related 
on  the  same  occasion  by  the  poet.  The  great  rival  of 
Pitt  rarely  opened  his  lips  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  John 
son,  for  fear  of  provoking  one  of  his  murderous  retorts ; 
and  on  somebody  remarking,  in  allusion,  I  presume, 
to  the  inequality  of  the  great  debater's  speeches,  that 


548  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

he  was  "  aut  Ccesar,  aut  nihil"  Johnson  replied, 
' '  Whenever  I  have  met  him  he  has  been  nihil." 
Equally  good  was  another  of  a  French  actor,  who, 
being  too  poor  to  provide  the  necessary  funds  for 
stage-dresses,  or  even  clean  linen,  was  playing  the  part 
of  Arbate  in  Racine's  "  Mithridates :  "  when  Mithri- 
dates  appears  in  the  third  scene  of  the  second  act,  and 
says  to  his  confidant : 

"  Enfin,  apres  un  an,  je  te  revois,  Arbate," 

instantly  a  witty  spectator  in  the  pit  stood  up  and  con 
tinued  the  speech : 

"  Avec  les  memes  bas  et  la  meme  cravate," 

which,  of  course,  in  newspaper  parlance,  "  brought 
down  the  house." 

Halleck  had  a  remarkably  sensitive  ear.  for  errors 
of  speech,  and  I  remember  with  what  glee  he  alluded 
to'  several  blunders  committed  by  a  pretentious  pro 
fessor  in  the  course  of  a  half-hour's  conversation  with 
the  poet,  when  the  writer  was  in  their  company  during 

the  poet's  spring  visit.     "  Professor  has  been 

speaking,"  said  Halleck,  after  his  departure,  "of  the 
'  plastic  mind '  of  Shakespeare,  as  if  it  meant  the  capa 
bility  of  being  moulded,  instead  of  power  to  mould. 
In  addition  to  this  misapprehension  of  the  meaning 
of  the  word  l  plastic,'  he  made  use  of  'suppositious.' 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  549 

There  is,  as  you  are  aware,  no  such  word  in  the  Eng 
lish  language.  What  he  meant  was  '  supposititious.'  " 

The  poet,  on  more  than  one  joyous  occasion  when 
he  had  been  in  a  particularly  happy  mood,  and  had  en 
riched  his  conversation  with  jests  and  laughter,  merry 
anecdotes,  with  "  quibble,  quirk,  and  quiddet,"  has,  in 
justification,  as  if  it  required  any  defence,  quoted  to 
me  the  words  of  Bolingbroke :  "I  have  observed  that, 
in  comedy,  the  best  actor  plays  the  part  of  the  droll, 
while  some  scrub  rogue  is  made  the  hero,  or  fine  gen 
tleman.  So,  in  this  farce  of  life,  wise  men  pass  their 
time  in  mirth,  while  fools  only  are  serious." 

From  Guilford  the  poet  writes  in  the  first  week  of 
May  :  "An  acquaintance  of  mine  here  some  days  since, 
forwarded,  at  my  request,  a  letter  to  Thurlow  Weed, 
on  the  subject  of  the  authorship  of  '  Junius.'  Will 
you  do  me  the  kindness  to  look  over  his  paper — the 
Commercial  Advertiser  ?  I  presume  it  is  on  file  at  the 
Athenaeum  Club  ;  and  if  any  notice  is  taken  of  the  let 
ter,  inform  me  under  what  date,  that  I  may  send  to  the 
printers  for  a  copy.  Mr.  Weed  has  recently  said  that 
he  knows  from  infallible  sources  in  England,  made 
known  to  him  there  personally,  that  Sir  Philip  Francis 
is  the  man.  I  should  like  much  to  see  his  proofs.  If 
ninety-nine  witnesses,  in  the  absence  of  the  hundredth, 
would  hang  a  gentleman,  Lord  George  Sackville  might 
claim  the  honor  of  martyrdom.  In  the  absence  of  the 
hundredth,  the  old  mystery  is  still  unsolved. 


550  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"Talking  of  mystery — do  I  violate  the  proprieties 
of  good-breeding  by  asking  whether  the  name  of  the 
lady  to  whom  you  have  so  graciously  and  gracefully 
dedicated  your  volume  is  a  secret  which,  as  Junius  said 
of  his,  will  die  with  you  ?  " 

A  few  weeks  later,  Mr.  Halleck  returns  to  the  sub 
ject  of  "Junius,"  enclosing  in  his  letter  to  me  an 
anonymous  communication,  addressed  to  Thurlow 
Weed,  editor  of  the  Commercial  Advertiser :  "  I  have 
your  kind  favor  of  the  28th  of  May.  The  notices  it  en 
closes  of  the  good  and  gallant  men,1  notices  so  feelingly 
and  so  eloquently  written,  have  affected  me  even  to 
tears.  That  our  unbrotherly  '  strife  of  swords  '  has 
made  known  and  made  dear  to  us  characters  worthy  of 
such  eulogies,  is  one  of  the  few  drops  of  balm  in  the 
Gilead  of  the  war. 

"  I  can  now  cordially  appreciate  the  truth  and  beauty 
of  your  dedication,  having  had  the  honor  of  a  brief  but 
most  delightful  interview  with  the  lady  you  name  some 
years  since,  and  having  long  been  aware  of  her  excel 
lences  of  mind  and  manner.  I  am  happy  to  learn  that 
she  still  at  times  remembers  the  joy  of  her  early  poetic 
worship,  and  does  not  on  her  present  busy  eminence 
wholly  '  give  up  to  party '  and  to  parties  '  what  was 
meant  for  mankind.' 


1  Warren  Stewart,  Colonel  of  the  Fifteenth  Illinois  Cavalry,  killed  near 
Vicksburg;  Lieutenant  George  Sibbald  Wilson,  Adjutant  Seventeenth  New- 
York  Infantry,  mortally  wounded  at  Fredericksburg. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  55  r 

"  I  enclose  a  copy  of  the  letter  on  the  subject  of 
'  Junius,'  in  which  you  appear  to  join  me  in  feeling  in 
terested,  and  would  like  much  to  know  your  opinion  as 
to  the  fact  of  Woodfall's  knowledge  of  his  man.  I 
think  it  an  important  feature  in  the  controversy.  I, 
myself,  cannot  but  believe  that  he  knew,  and,  if  he  did, 
Francis  could  not  be  the  man.  Among  all  the  hitherto 
suspected  names,  those  of  Lord  Chatham  and  Lord 
George  Sackville  are  highest  in  social  and  political 
rank,  and  they  are,  indeed,  the  only  two  men  from 
whom  the  aristocratic  letter  of  protection,  etc.,  could, 
with  propriety  come,  and  upon  whom  Woodfall  could 
rely  implicitly  for  immunity  from  punishment,  and 
compensation  for  damages,  etc.,  in  the  libel-suit.  The 
argument  connected  with  handwriting  I  consider  of  no 
force.  If  perpetual  concealment  was  contemplated,  the 
fiction  of  handwriting  was  comprised  in  the  fiction  of  a 
name,  and  would  be  carefully  kept  as  far  different  from 
the  true  hand  of  the  author  as  possible.  Craving  your 
pardon  for  supposing  that  you,  busy  (and  profitably 
busy,  I  hope)  as  you  daily  and  hourly  are,  should  care 
about  so  idle  a  subject,  fit  only  for  idlers  like  me,  drones 
in  the  social  hive,  I  beg  you  to  believe  me,"  etc. 

[TO  THURLOW   WEED.] 

DEAR  SIR  :  The  recent  publication  of  a  letter  of 
yours  having  revived  the  interest  so  long  felt  by  idle 
readers,  in  the  question,  Who  was  Junius  ?  I  venture 


552 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


to  hope  that  you  will  pardon  the  liberty  I  take  in  ask 
ing  your  opinion  whether  or  not  Mr.  Woodfall  and 
"  Junius,"  the  one  as  printer,  the  other  as  author  of  the 
"  Letters,"  personally  and  confidently  knew  each  other? 

That  Mr.  Woodfall  did  not,  at  any  period,  know  his 
man,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  believe.  I  am  quite 
sure  that  had  the  letters  appeared  originally,  some 
years  since,  in  the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  the  secret 
of  their  authorship  would  not  have  been  long  hidden 
from  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed,  and  can  it  be  possible  that 
the  English  printer,  in  a  matter  of  business,  involving 
the  risk  of  a  penal  prosecution,  should  have  refrained 
from  mastering,  in  spite  of  the  writer's  utmost  care,  a 
secret  to  all  appearances  easily  attained  by  obvious,  and 
honest,  and  honorable  means  ? 

Mr.  Francis,  as  a  frequent  and  open  contributor  to 
Mr.  Woodfall's  paper,  was  in  daily  intercourse  with 
him,  and  assuming  him  to  be,  and  known  by  Mr. 
Woodfall  to  be,  "  Junius,"  where  (allow  me  to  ask) 
were  his  manuscripts  of  the  letters  so  mysteriously  con 
veyed,  at  the  risk  of  discovery  ?  WThat  need  was  there 
of  the  private  notes  ?  and  what  value  could  Mr.  Wood- 
fall  attach  to  that  peculiarly  arrogant  and  aristocratic 
letter  which  assures  him  powerful  protection  in  the 
libel-suit,  when  he  knew  that  its  writer  was  but  a  young 
and,  comparatively,  an  obscure  clerk  in  the  war-office, 
with  apparently  no  personal,  political,  or  family  in 
fluence  ? 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  553 

The  expression  of  your  opinion  in  the  matter,  in 
some  vacant  column  of  your  paper,  will  make  me, 
Dear  sir,  gratefully  yours, 

Y.  H.  S. 

Halleck  was  fond  of  talking  about  "  Junius,"  that 
"  mighty  boar  of  the  forest,"  as  Burke  called  him,  and, 
at  one  of  our  last  interviews,  gave  a  new  version  of  the 
old  anecdote  of  Sir  Philip  Francis,  who  was  impetuous 
and  abrupt  in  manner,  interrupting  George  IV.  in  the 
midst  of  a  tedious  story  with  a  "  Well,  sir,  well !  "  His 
new  and  greatly  improved  anecdote  was  as  follows  : 
"  Sir  Philip  Francis  being  excessively  tired,  not  only 
with  the  story  in  question,  but  with  other  twice-told 
tales  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  hearing  at  the  king's 
table,  interrupted  the  royal  narration  with  the  politer, 
but  not  less  significant  words  :  '  Well,  and  the  result, 
sir,  if  you  please  ? '  "  The  result  was  as  might  have 
been  expected,  that  Francis  never  dined  with  his  ma 
jesty  again  ;  and  it  is  highly  probable,  having  been  so 
insufferably  bored  by  "the  first  gentleman  of  Europe," 
that  the  penalty  was  deliberately  incurred.  With  old 
Polonius,  he  believed  that — 

"  Brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit, 
And  tediousness  the  limbs  and  outward  flourishes." 

He  then  quoted  Seneca's  account  of  the  total  destruc 
tion  of  Lyons  by  fire,  as  the  best  illustration  of  brevity 
24 


tj[j4  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

with  which  he  had  ever  met :  "  Inter  magnam  urbem 
et  nullam  nox  una  interfuit " — between  a  great  city 
and  none,  only  a  single  night  intervened. 

In  June  Mr.  Halleck  spent  a  few  days  in  New  York, 
and  on  one  evening  we  sat  until  past  midnight.  Of  this 
meeting  he  might  have  said,  as  he  once  remarked  of  a 
conversation  he  held  with  Hawthorne,  "  We  happened 
to  sit  together  at  a  dinner-table,  and  I  assure  you  that 
for  an  hour  we  talked  incessantly,  although  Hawthorne 
said  nothing."  Halleck  could  keep  up  a  torrent  of  con 
versation  for  hours,  and  it  may  be  said  of  his  continuous 
monologues,  as  was  written  by  De  Ouincey,  of  Cole 
ridge's  conversation,  that  it  was  not  colloquium  but 
alloquium. 

Having  mentioned  to  Halleck  that  a  certain  person 
had  recently  applied  to  Mr.  Seward  for  the  Austrian 
mission,  and,  being  refused  this  modest  request,  ex 
pressed  a  desire  to  go  to  Mexico,  then  vacant,  or,  if  he 
could  not  have  that  place,  a  position  as  consul  some 
where,  or  a  twelve-hundred-dollar  clerkship  in  the  State 
Department,  and  finally  concluded  by  requesting  the 
loan  of  five  dollars  !  he  matched  it  with  the  case  of  a 
gentleman  who  applied  to  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  Lord- 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  for  some  preferment,  adding 
that  he  was  by  no  means  particular,  and  was  willing  to 
accept  a  bishopric,  or  a  regiment  of  horse,  or  to  be 
made  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench.  "  How 
ever,"  added  Halleck,  "  both  requests  were  surpassed 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  555 

in  modesty  by  that  of  the  humane  English  jailer,  who 
made  the  following  application  to  one  of  his  condemned 
prisoners  :  '*  My  good  friend,  I  have  a  little  favor  to 
ask  of  you,  which,  from  your  exceedingly  obliging  dis 
position,  I  feel  quite  sure  you  will  grant.  You  are 
ordered  to  be  hanged  on  Friday  week.  I  have  a  din 
ner-engagement  on  that  day  :  if  it  makes  no  difference 
to  you,  would  you,  would  you  say  next  Friday  in 
stead  ? '  " 

Halleck  told  a  story  of  Samuel  Johnson  that  I  have 
never  seen  in  print.  He  went  on  board  a  seventy-four, 
and  spent  a  week  with  the  commander  of  the  ship. 
When  the  great  moralist  was  sent  on  shore,  the  young 
lieutenant  who  accompanied  him  asked  if  he  had  any 
further  commands.  "  Sir,"  said  Johnson,  "  have  the 
goodness  to  thank  the  commodore  and  all  the  officers 

for  their  kindness  to  me,  and  tell  Mr. (the  first 

lieutenant)  that  I  beg  he  will  leave  off  the  practice  of 
swearing."  The  young  man,  willing  to  justify,  or,  at 
least,  excuse  his  senior  officer,  answered  that  it  was 
impossible  to  make  the  sailors  obey  orders  without 
making  use  of  strong  language,  and  that  the  king's 
service  required  it.  "  Then  pray,  sir,"  replied  John 
son,  tell  Mr. that  I  beseech  him  not  to  use  one 

more  oath  than  is  absolutely  required  for  the  good  of 
his  Majesty's  service." 

Among  numerous  amusing  Irish  bulls,  he  gave  an 
illustration,  and  a  most  capital  one,  of  a  Gallic  Hiber- 


cjij6  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

nicism.  A  French  nobleman  had  been  reproaching 
his  son  with  ingratitude.  "  I  owe  you  nothing,"  said 
the  unfilial  youth;  "so  far  from  having  served  me, 
you  have  always  stood  in  my  way;  for,  if  you  had 
never  been  born,  I  should  at  this  moment  be  the 
next  heir  of  my  rich  grandfather."  Equally  good  was 
the  reply  of  an  Irish  lad,  when,  in  the  course  of  an 
examination  as  a  witness,  he  was  asked  his  age,  "  I'm 
just  twenty,  your  honor,  but  I  would  have  been 
twenty-one  only  my  mother  miscarried  the  year  before 
I  was  born."  This  was  followed  by  a  clever  repartee 
made  to  Abernethy,  the  celebrated  surgeon,  who,  find 
ing  a  large  pile  of  paving-stones  opposite  to  his  door, 
on  returning  in  his  carriage  from  a  visit  to  a  patient, 
swore  hastily  at  the  Hibernian,  and  ordered  him  to 
remove  them.  "  Where  shall  I  take  them  to  ?  "  said 
the  pavior.  "  To  hell !  "  cried  the  choleric  surgeon. 
Pat  leaned  forward  upon  his  rammer,  and,  looking  up 
archly  and  smilingly,  said,  "  Sure,  an'  hadn't  I  better 
take  them  to  heaven?  they'll  be  more  out  of  your 
honor's  way  there." 

Conversing  on  the  subject  of  memory,  I  remarked 
that  there  was  an  instance  recorded  of  a  person  who 
had  learned  to  repeat  the  whole  of  Tasso's  "Jeru 
salem,"  whereupon  he  replied  that  he  had  himself  met 
with  a  more  remarkable  exhibition  of  the  height  to 
which  the  memory  may  be  cultivated.  "At  Stirling," 
said  the  poet,  "  I  saw  an  uneducated  man,  known  as 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  557 

Blind  Jamie,  who  could  actually  repeat  verbatim  any 
chapter  of  the  Bible  required.  I  tried  him,  book  in 
hand,  with  several,  all  of  which  he  gave  with  perfect 
correctness.  I  then  and  still  consider  it  to  be  the 
most  wonderful  exhibition  of  the  extent  to  which  the 
memory  may  be  cultivated  of  which  there  is  any 
record." 

Halleck's  memory  for  poetry  was  the  most  marvel 
lous  I  ever  met  with.  He  repeated  the  whole  of 
"Fanny"  to  an  intimate  lady-friend  before  its  pub 
lication,  and  to  another  lady  every  line  of  the  "  Plea's-* 
ures  of  Hope."  Seated  together,  in  August,  1867,  at 
"The  Point,"  Guilford,  Halleck  repeated  to  me  Mr. 
Bryant's  poem,  "  The  Planting  of  the  Apple-tree," 
adding,  upon  its  conclusion,  "  I  knew  those  lines  after 
a  single  reading,  an  infallible  test  with  me  of  true 
poetry.  Since  then  I  have  fixed  them  indelibly  on 
my  memory,  which  is  '  wax  to  receive  and  marble  to 
retain,'  by  copying  them  from  the  Evening  Post,  where 
I  first  saw  them  several  years  since." 

The  poet  had  a  habit,  during  his  retirement  at 
Guilford,  of  copying  any  poem  or  passage  of  prose  that 
particularly  pleased  him,  and,  among  the  extracts  made 
in  the  course  of  his  readings,  I  have  met  with  several 
passages  from  Chaucer  and  Spenser;  Cowley's  lines 
on  the  death  of  Mr.  Crashaw,  who  died  at  Loretto, 
when  newly-chosen  canon  of  that  church  ;  quotations 
from  Dr.  Johnson's  and  Addison's  prose  writings,  from 


558 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


Pope's  verse,  from  Tasso  and  Beranger,  in  the  original 
Italian  and  French  ;  and  one  of  Bryant's  later  poems, 
already  referred  to. 

Passing  Brady's  during  a  walk  on  Broadway,  I 
urged  him  to  go  in  and  sit  for  a  large  photograph,  but 
he  declined,  saying,  "I  much  prefer  that  you  should 
remember  me  as  I  have  been,  not  as  I  am,"  adding, 
"  Permit  me  to  suggest  your  commissioning  one  of 
your  artist-friends  to  copy  Inman's  picture."  Mr.  Hal- 
leek  had  the  same  feeling  about  portraits  in  his  later 
years  that  Irving  expressed  to  Elliott  when  he  declined 
giving  the  artist  a  sitting,  and  said :  "  No  ;  I  shall  not 
perpetuate  such  a  libel  on  myself  as  to  have  a  picture 
of  an  old  man  made,  and  then  hear  it  said,  '  Is  that 
the  old  fellow  who  has  written  all  those  tender  love- 
stories  ?  '  Oh  no  ;  that  won't  do  !  " 

His  portrait  by  Elliott,  from  having  hung  for  a 
long  period  directly  over  the  fireplace,  in  the  private 
office  of  tjie  Messrs.  Appleton,  in  Broadway,  had  be 
come  very  dingy ;  observing  which,  the  poet  remarked 
to  one  of  the  firm,  making  a  slight  movement  with  his 
head  toward  the  portrait,  "  Getting  used  up,  I  see, 
like  myself."  It  was  recently  cleaned  and  restored  by 
Mr.  Elliott — among  the  last  things  done  by  him — and 
may  now  be  seen  in  all  its  original  beauty  in  the  office 
of  the  publishers  of  this  volume,  for  whom  it  was 
painted. 

Having  an  appointment  with  the  poet  one  morning 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  559 

to  accompany  him  to  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  he 
proposed  that  we  should  proceed  from  the  St.  Denis 
Hotel,  not  by  entering  an  omnibus,  a  car,  or  carriage, 
nor  yet  by  walking,  but  by  taking  the  Christopher- 
Street  Ferry  to  Hoboken,  and  then  returning  to  New 
York  by  the  Barclay-Street  boat,  "  My  usual  mode," 
said  Halleck,  "  of  going  down  town !  "  We  accord 
ingly  adopted  that  roundabout,  but  very  agreeable — 
it  was  a  lovely  June  morning,  and  the  Weehawken 
hills  never  looked  more  beautiful — and  economical 
route  to  the  lower  portion  of  the  city.  The  poet's  novel 
system  of  city  travel  I  considered  at  the  time  as  being 
as  new  to  him  as  to  myself,  but  I  have  since  been  in 
formed  by  Andrew  Warner  that  he  assured  George 
P.  Morris  it  was  his  usual  mode  of  getting  up  and 
down  town  during  the  summer  months.  However, 
Halleck  was  so  much  of  a  farceur,  that  I  imagine  he 
was  humbugging  the  General. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  poet's  June  visit  to  New 
York,  he  writes:  "  In  order  to  convince  you  that  I 
have  read  your  book1  thoroughly,  through  and  through, 
allow  me  to  play  Sir  Fretful  Plagiary's  (  damned  good- 
natured  friend '  for  a  moment,  and  point  out  the  only 
'needle'  that  I  have  thus  far  found  in  the  haystack 
of  your  pages.  It  is  in  the  quotation,  on  page  250, 
from  Dr.  Johnson's  compliment  to  Garrick — '  his  death 
eclipsed  the  gayety  of  nations J  not  of  'mankind.'  So 

1  "  Mr.  Secretary  Pepys,  with  Extracts  from  his  Diary." 


tj5o  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

much  alike  as  the  two  words  seem,  your  musical  ear 
must,  I  think,  feel  the  distinction.  I  quote  from  mem 
ory,  having  no  library  near  me.  If  I  am  wrong,  please 
rebuke  me. 

"  By  the  way,  let  me  ask  you  to  pardon  a  little 
egotistical  story,  expressing  my  sensitiveness  as  a  lover 
of  genius,  characterized  by  peculiarity  of  expression — 
expression  being,  in  my  opinion,  the  attribute  of  genius, 
especially  in  poetry,  'the  vision  and  the  faculty  divine.' 
'  If  the  cap  fits  you '  in  the  present  case,  you  must 
thank  me  for  the  compliment,  for  the  hero  of  my  story 
is  one  of  the  noblest  in  his  way  in  our  home  literature.1 
He  had  quoted  on  one  of  his  pages  Milton's  line, 

'  Those  thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity,' 

and  inserted  the  word  '  which '  in  place  of '  that?  thereby 
robbing  us  of  the  music  of  the  alliteration.  Soon  after 
having  read  his  book  I  received  an  invitation,  from  one 
of  the  most  charming  young  ladies2  of  the  time,  to 
meet  him  at  her  evening  party ;  and  I  wrote  her,  de 
clining,  with  the  utmost  regret,  to  avail  myself  of  her 
courtesy,  on  the  ground  of  my  unwillingness  to  con 
nect  her  memory  thereafter  with  that  of  a  person  who 
was  daily  seen  walking  in  the  streets  with  a  misquota 
tion  from  Milton  upon  his  conscience  !  " 

In  the  month  of  August  I  spent  a  few  days  with 
the  poet  at  Guilford.  Since  my  previous  visit  he  had 

1  Dr.  William  E.  Channing.  2  Miss  Sedgwick. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  561 

changed  his  place  of  residence  from  the  venerable 
mansion  facing  the  Green,  represented  on  the  vignette 
title,  to  a  smaller  house  on  a  side  street.  Mr.  Halleck 
was  then  in  excellent  health,  and  in  our  rambles  around 
Guilford  he  entertained  me  with  much  pleasant  gossip 
about  his  native  town,  asserting  that  there  were  none 
but  gentlemen  born  there — albeit  they  were  somewhat 
poor  gentlemen — all  their  mechanics  being  imported 
from  New  Haven  ;  also,  that  any  single  man  who  spent 
more  than  five  hundred  dollars  a  year  would  be 
drummed  out  of  the  town. 

Of  Connecticut  he  spoke  as  a  State  where  they 
fined  a  man  for  smoking,  or  for  kissing  his  wife  on 
Sunday  !  He  then  alluded  to  her  numerous  poets : 
Trumbull,  Hopkins,  Humphreys,  and  Barlow,  among 
the  early  bards  ;  Pierpont,  Hillhouse,  Sigourney,  Per- 
cival,  Brainard,  Prentice,  and  George  Hill,  like  him 
self,  a  native  of  Guilford,  may  be  mentioned  among 
the  modern  poets  of  Connecticut,  of  which  one  of  her 
earliest  singers,  said  Halleck,  wrote  some  seventy  years 

since : 

"  Connecticut !  thy  name, 

Uncouth,  in  song,  too  long  concealed  from  fame, 
If  yet  thy  filial  bards  the  gloom  can  pierce, 
Shall  rise  and  flourish  in  immortal  verse. 
Inventive  genius,  imitative  powers, 
And  still  more  precious,  common  sense,  is  ours ; 
While  knowledge  useful,  more  than  science  grand, 
In  rivulets  still  o'erspreads  the  smiling  land  !  " 
24* 


562  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

Halleck  was  born  and  lived  an  Episcopalian,  and 
according  to  the  ritual  of  that  Church  he  was  buried, 
but  he  entertained  no  prejudices  in  religious  matters. 
Catholic,  Quaker,  Protestant,  were  alike  to  him.  He 
charitably  acknowledged  every  one's  right  to  his  own 
peculiar  belief,  and  I  remember  his  quoting,  during 
one  of  our  August  rambles,  a  verse  from  Moore  : 

"  Shall  I  ask  the  brave  soldier  who  fights  by  my  side 

In  the  cause  of  mankind,  if  our  creeds  agree  ? 
Shall  I  give  up  the  friend  I  have  valued  and  tried, 
If  he  kneel  not  before  the  same  altar  with  me?  " 

In  later  years,  when  attending  service,  his  unlisten- 
ing  ear  often  prevented  his  hearing  the  sermon,  ex 
cept  when  the  preacher,  like  his  friend  Dr.  Hawks, 
spoke  loud  and  distinctly.  In  these  cases  his  habit 
was  to  repeat — inaudibly,  of  course — poems  or  favorite 
chapters  of  the  Bible,  which  he  had  committed  to 
memory.  In  his  younger  days,  he  very  often,  when  he 
could  hear  distinctly,  preferred  recalling  some  of  his 
favorite  poems,  in  lieu  of  listening  to  a  dull  sermon. 
Few  persons  were  as  familiar  with  the  Bible  as  the 
poet,  which  fact  may  be  explained  when  it  is  stated 
that  in  1860  he  informed  one  of  his  most  intimate 
friends  that  it  was  his  habit  to  read  the  whole  of  the 
sacred  volume  once  every  year.  His  familiarity  with 
the  Bible  is  exhibited  in  his  letters,  as  it  was  in  his 
conversation ;  nor  was  he  less  familiar  with  the  Book 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  5 63 

of  Common  Prayer.  During  my  acquaintance  with 
the  poet  I  frequently  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  him 
read  and  recite  from  the  Prayer-Book,  including  the 
Benediction,  which  he  deemed  one  of  the  most  beauti 
ful  passages  in  English  literature. 

Few  persons  have  had  such  an  extended  acquaint 
ance  as  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  his  reminiscences  extend 
ing  back  almost  to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  including  nearly  all  the  great  names  in 
the  early  history  of  American  literature.  Audubon, 
Cooper,  Drake,  Irving,  Morris,  Poe,  Prescott,  Pauld- 
ing,  Willis,  are  a  few  of  the  authors  and  poets  of  our 
own  land  who  have  passed  away,  with  whom  Halleck 
was  acquainted,  and  of  whom  he  might  have  left  be 
hind  most  entertaining  reminiscences.  Such  a  collec 
tion,  written  by  such  a  person,  could  not  have  failed 
to  have  made  a  most  attractive  and  valuable  volume. 
During  our  rambles  he  related  many  anecdotes  of  his 
literary  contemporaries,  which  I  may  hereafter,  in  an 
other  volume,  share  with  the  public. 

As  the  western  horizon  began  to  glow  with  that 
which  one  of  our  poets  has  so  beautifully  termed 

"  The  pomp  that  brings  and  shuts  the  day," 

I  shook  hands  with  my  venerable  friend,  whom  I  was 
never  again  to  see  in  his  own  loved  home,  and  stepped 
on  the  platform  of  the  rear  car  of  the  train,  Halleck 


564  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

waving  an  adieu  with  his  hat,  and  calling  out  in  his 
cheery  manner,  "  Come  up  again  soon  !  " 

The  last  lines  composed  by  the  poet  were  to  render 
a  little  song  from  the  pen  of  Benjamin  H.  Field,  en 
titled  "  Floy  Van  Cortlandt,"  more  complete.  They 
were  written  in  August ;  and,  in  forwarding  the  stanza, 
he  expresses  the  hope  that  it  would  be  accepted  and 
considered  no  injury  to  a  song  whose  "  music  is  per 
fect,  and  its  style,  like  the  single-leafed  simplicity  of 
our  wild  wayside  rose,  is  quite  charming."  Mr.  Hal- 
leek's  verse  is  as  follows : 

"  And  that  I  am  all  the  world  to  her, 

It  joys  my  breath  to  say, 
For  her  beating  heart  has  told  me  so 

For  many  a  happy  day — 
For  many  a  happy  day — 

And  her  bonny  lip  and  eye, 
Oh  !  my  darling  Floy  Van  Cortlandt, 

'Tis  for  thee  I'd  live  and  die." 

On  the  last  day  of  August  Mr.  Halleck  made  one 
of  his  always  welcome  visits  to  "The  Point,"  and 
spent  an  hour  in  chatting  with  several  friends  who  were 
sojourning  at  that  pleasant  summer  retreat.  Before 
his  departure  he  walked  through  the  garden  attached  to 
the  hotel,  and  plucked  a  rose,  with  which  he  returned 
to  the  house.  Presenting  himself  to  the  favorite  of  the 
season,  lifting  his  hat,  and,  making  his  best  bow  to 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  565 

the  fair  lady,  he  said,  "  May  I  beg  your  gracious  ac 
ceptance  of  the  last  rose  of  summer  ?  " 

On  the  1 2th  of  September,  the  poet  writes  to  his 
life-long  friend  Robert  G.  L.  DePeyster,  of  Connec 
ticut  :  "  With  regard  to  the  political  topics  of  your 
letter,  it  is  proper  I  should,  at  the  risk  of  becoming 
tiresomely  egotistical,  tell  you  that,  as  a  Federalist  in 
my  boyhood  and  a  monarchist  in  my  manhood,  I  prefer 
a  government  representing  property,  and,  let  me  add, 
probity,  to  a  government  of  numbers. 

"  Under  a  democracy,  a  vote  is  of  no  value  unless 
given  for  a  candidate  of  an  organized  party  or  faction. 
To  the  discipline  of  such  organizations  I  could  not,  and 
cannot,  submit.  It  demands  the  abandonment  of  the 
voter's  freedom  of  action  and  opinion,  and  sooner  or 
later  he  degenerates  into  the  mere  tool  of  a  few  party 
leaders,  a  class  whom  John  Randolph  used  to  charac 
terize  as  '  men  of  seven  principles,  five  loaves  and  two 
small  fishes.' 

"  At  this  moment,  and  for  the  next  twelve  months, 
this  class  of  gentry,  North  and  South,  are  to  be  our 
masters,  fighting  with  each  other  at  our  expense,  in 
aid  of  their  several  candidates,  from  the  President 
downward.  When  the  coming  election  is  over,  I  hope 
they  will  allow  us  to  look  forward  to  a  peaceable  and 
pleasant  reunion  of  the  old  Union,  under  I  care  not 
what  administration.  I  have  not  the  least  objection  to 
one  composed  of  your  favorite  gentlemen  of  the  South. 


5 66  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Their  fathers  have  heretofore,  in  times  past,  been  our 
ablest  statesmen,  and  I  doubt  not  that,  among  their 
sons,  now  and  hereafter,  we  shall  find  many  sons 
worthy  the  fame  of  their  sires. 

"  As  for  the  amnesty,  I  only  regret  that  it  is  not 
more  general.  I  would  have  no  exceptions.  Such 
exceptions,  outside  of  the  pools,  will  be  the  cry  of  per 
secution,  martyrdom,  etc.,  do  more  harm  to  our  re 
construction  than  if  inside.  In  one  case  they  count 
but  one  vote  each,  in  the  other  they  count  the  votes  of 
a  multitude  of  sympathizing  partisans. 

"  I  ought,  in  justice  and  strict  exactness,  to  add 
that,  although  never  voting  politically,  I  have  socially 
voted  twice,  once  for  an  assistant  alderman,  and  once 
for  a  ten-dollar  bill,  both  of  which  proved  counterfeit." 

The  venerable  poet  arrived  in  New  York  on  his  last 
visit,  October  7th,  very  unfortunately  adding  to  a  cold 
which  he  had  taken  before  leaving  Guilford.  He  re 
mained  in  the  city  for  a  week,  but  was  too  unwell  to 
accept  any  invitations,  and  only  left  his  hotel  twice,  to 
visit  Dr.  Carnochan,  and  for  a  short  stroll  with  the  writer 
on  Broadway  and  the  Bowery,  where  he  enjoyed  a  walk 
almost  as  much  as  in,  the  more  fashionable  avenues. 
He  never  came  to  New  York  without  taking  a  glimpse 
of  "the  substantial  beauties  of  the  Bowery,"  as  he 
termed  the  rosy-cheeked  damsels  to  be  met  with  in 
that  Germanized  thoroughfare.  Passing  some  chim 
ney-sweeps,  it  recalled  to  Halleck  one  of  George  Sel- 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  567 

wyn's  bon-mots.  While  walking  one  day  with  Lord 
Pembroke,  they  were  besieged  by  a  number  of  young 
sweeps,  who  kept  plaguing  them  for  money,  when  at 
length  Selwyn  made  a  low  bow.  "I  have  often,"  he 
said,  "heard  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people;  I  sup 
pose  your  highnesses  are  in  court-mourning."  This 
led  him  on  to  relate  other  anecdotes  of  the  famous  wit, 
the  only  one  of  which  that  I  can  now  recall  was  of  a 
namesake  of  Charles  Fox,  who,  having  been  hung  at 
Tyburn,  the  great  Whig  statesman  inquired  of  Selwyn 
whether  he  attended  the  execution.  "No,"  he  an 
swered,  "  I  make  a  point  of  never  attending  rehears 
als." 

The  poet  was  exceedingly  polite  to  all,  and  partic 
ularly  so  to  ladies,  with  a  well-bred,  high-born  manner, 
that  irresistibly  recalled  the  formality  of  la  •vieille  cour. 
Meeting  a  lady  on  Broadway,  with  whom  he  was  well 
acquainted,  he  removed  his  hat  on  stopping  to  speak 

with  her,  nor  could  Mrs. induce  him  to  replace 

it,  and  so,  fearing  the  poet  would  take  cold,  she  ran 
off,  on  the  plea  of  an  engagement,  that  she  might  not, 
as  she  afterward  assured  me,  have  the  sin  on  her  con 
science  of  having  added  to  his  illness. 

During  the  walk  he  leaned  heavily  on  my  arm, 
which  he  had  never  in  any  instance  done  before  ;  and 
when  we  returned  to  his  hotel,  and  he  sat  down,  feeling 
unwell,  and  greatly  fatigued,  he  quoted  the  lines  from 
Macbeth  : 


5 68  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

"  Come  what  come  may, 
Time  and  the  hour  run  through  the  roughest  day." 

0 

The  following  day  I  found  the  poet  rather  worse, 
and  not  in  his  usually  cheerful  mood.  He  spoke  de- 
spondingly  of  his  poor  health,  his  unlistening  ear,  his 
total  loss  of  appetite,  his  sleepless  nights;  and  said 
that  the  three  sufficients  described  in  Mrs.  Piozzi's 
story *  were  not  to  be  mistaken,  that  he  felt  Fate  was 
drawing  its  circumvallations  around  him,  that  his 
earthly  career  was  nearly  ended.  The  poet  then  spoke 
sadly  of  the  death  of  Miss  Sedgwick,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Taylor,  Mr.  Davis,  and  N.  P.  Willis,  as  well  as  some 
other  friends  of  his  youth,  adding,  "The  last  few  years 
have  swept  away  nearly  all  my  early  acquaintances, 
but  we  must  expect  that  it  should  be  so 

'  When  ance  life's  day  draws  near  the  gloaminV  " 

He  then  repeated  a  portion  of  the  touching  and  famil 
iar  lines  of  Elia's : 

"  I  have  had  playmates,  I  have  had  companions,"  etc. 

This  was  followed  by  allusions  to  his  youthful  days,  of 
which,  unlike  Paulding,  he  had  pleasant  recollections. 
He  spoke  most  beautifully 

"  Of  life's  sunny  morning  of  hope  and  of  youth," 
1  "  The  Three  Warnings,"  by  Mrs.  Piozzi,  nee  Thrale. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  569 

when  he  wandered,  a  happy  school-boy,  through  the 
fields  and  meadows  of  Guilford,  and  pathetically  allud 
ed  to  the  few  that  remained  of  "  the  old  familiar  faces  " 
with  whom  he  set  out  on  the  voyage  of  life,  concluding 
with  a  quotation  from  Gray's  exquisite  ode  : 

"  Ah,  happy  hills  !  ah,  pleasing  shade  ! 

Ah,  fields  beloved  in  vain  ! 
Where  once  my  careless  childhood  strayed, 
A  stranger  yet  to  pain  !  " 

This  was  the  only  occasion  on  which  I  ever  saw  the 
poet  in  other  than  a  cheerful  mood,  for  it  was  charac 
teristic  of  Halleck  that  he  said  nothing  of  his  troubles, 
even  to  his  most  intimate  friends.  His  fond  sister  was 
his  only  confidante.  Before  taking  my  departure,  he 
requested  me  to  repeat  Lady  Nairne's  exquisite  poem, 
"  The  Land  o'  the  Leal."  As  I  did  so  I  saw  the  tears 
in  his  eyes,  and,  when  its  recital  was  concluded,  he 
said,  ' '  There  are  no  poets  so  tender  and  musical  as 
those  of  Scotland;  "  and  then,  a  change  coming  over 
him,  he  recited  several  of  the  martial  passages  from 
"  Marmion,"  while  his  eyes  fairly  blazed  with  enthu 
siasm,  and  the  old  bright,  genial  smile  lit  up  his  still 
fine  features.  When  I  again  saw  him  he  related  the 
following  story  of  a  member  of  the  Kemble  family 
and  a  hot-blooded  Georgian:  The  former  was  at  a 
supper  in  Philadelphia,  with  several  Southerners,  in 
the  good  old  pistol  and  bowie-knife  days,  when  the 


570 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 


gentleman  seated  next  to  him  related  an  adventure  he 
had  met  with  on  the  Mississippi  River.  A  gambler 
having  been  detected  by  him  in  cheating  at  cards,  he 
drew  his  long  knife  and  pinned  the  fellow's  hand  to  the 
table  just  as  he  was  abstracting  a  card  from  the  pack. 
The  excited  Southerner,  in  telling  the  story,  had  drawn 
out  his  bowie-knife,  and,  in  illustrating  how  it  was 
done,  brought  down  the  knife  with  such  force  as  to 
drive  the  instrument  through  Kemble's  hand,  which 
he,  of  course,  did  unintentionally,  not  having  observed 
the  hand  until  his  twelve-inch  knife  had  pinned  it  to 
the  table.  After  many  apologies,  the  Southerner  of 
fered  to  give  him  satisfaction  in  the  manner  customary 
among  the  fire-eating  gentry  of  the  period — an  offer, 
added  the  poet,  which  the  player  very  respectfully  de 
clined,  being  perfectly  satisfied  with  having  a  bowie- 
knife  run  through  his  right  hand,  without  the  slightest 
desire  to  afford  the  Southerner  an  opportunity  of  send 
ing  a  bullet  through  his  head.  Kemble's  nephew, 
added  Halleck,  was  quite  as  much  relieved  when  his 
fiery  friend  withdrew,  to  make  way  for  the  surgeon,  as 
Fanny's  father  was  when  he  parted  company  at  the 
theatre  with  the  broad-shouldered  friend  of  Linnard 
McNally. 

This  was  soon  followed  by  an  account  of  his  friend 
General  D'Angely,  who  suffered  so  much  in  body  as 
well  as  mind  on  account  of  his  banishment  from  France, 
and  who,  returning,  with  the  king's  permission,  to  his 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  57! 

native  land,  fell  dead  at  the  gates  of  Paris.  An  elo 
quent  orator  delivered  a  funeral  oration  at  the  grave, 
which  began,  "//  mart  d'exil!"  "Did  you  ever," 
added  the  poet,  "  hear  of  a  Yankee  dying  of  exile  ?  " 

Of  the  "  Iron  Duke  "  he  related  a  little  incident  that 
I  have  not  met  with  :  "On  Wellington's  visits  to  the 
Marquis  Wellesley,  he  was  sometimes  kept  waiting, 
upon  which  he  remarked  one  day,  ( I  believe  my  brother 
thinks  he  is  still  Governor-General  of  India,  and  that  I 
am  only  Colonel  Wellesley.'  From  old  habit,  and  a 
grudge  against  military  ascendency,  the  aristocratic 
elder  brother  did  not  dislike  to  keep  up  his  privileges 
of  primogeniture."  -  . 

Of  fame  Halleck  remarked:  "Ashes  to  ashes,  dust 
to  dust,  may  be  said  of  fame  as  well  as  of  our  frame  ; 
one  is  buried  very  soon  after  the  other."  Then  followed 
an  apt  quotation  from  Byron  : 

"  What  is  the  end  of  fame  ?     Tis  but  to  till 

A  certain  portion  of  uncertain  paper ; 
Some  liken  it  to  climbing  up  a  hill, 

Whose  summit,  like  all  hills,  is  lost  in  vapor. 
For  this  men  write,  speak,  preach,  and  heroes  kill, 

And  bards  burn  what  they  call  '  the  midnight  taper,' 
To  have,  when  the  original  is  dust, 
A  name,  a  wretched  picture,  and  worse  bust." 

He  spoke  of  poets  paying  no  other  debt  but  the 
debt  of  Nature,  and  quoted  the  reply  of  the  shrewd 


572  LIFE  AND  LETTERS    OF 

merchant  who,  on  being  asked  the  character  of  a  per 
son  addicted  to  poetry,  described  him  as  "  a  man  who 
has  soarings  after  the  indefinite,  and  divings  after  the 
unfathomable,  but  he  never  pays  cash" 

Speaking  of  a  well-known  public  man,  he  said, 
quoting  Dr.  Johnson's  extraordinary  compliment  to 
Topham  Beauclerk,  the  great-grandson  of  Charles  the 
Second  and  Nell  Gwynn,  that  "  his  body  was  all  vice, 
and  his  mind  all  virtue." 

11  If  we  never  meet  again,  come  and  see  me  laid 
under  the  sod  of  my  native  village,"  were  the  sad  and 
prophetic  words  with  which  I  parted  from  my  honored 
friend  on  the  morning  of  his  last  day's  sojourn  in  the 
city  he  loved  so  well.  He  left  New  York  in  the  fore 
noon  of  October  I4th,  with  a  presentiment  that  he  would 
never  again  gaze  upon  the  busy  scenes  of  the  great  me 
tropolis.  He  arrived  at  Guilford  the  same  evening, 
"  weak  as  a  broken  wave,"  but  in  a  few  days  he  recov 
ered  sufficiently  to  walk  out,  and  make  his  visits  to  the 
post-office  and  other  of  his  accustomed  haunts.  Among 
the  few  letters  which  he  wrote  after  leaving  New  York, 
the  following,  addressed  to  Benjamin  H.  Field,  was 
among  the  last,  if  not  the  very  last.  It  is  written  with 
that  finished  neatness  which  characterizes  his  poetry : 
"The  beautiful  lines  you  send  me,  ennobling,  as  they 
do,  the  genius  of  the  mysterious  Mr.  Hazard,  have  won 
my  heart,  as  they  did  that  of  the  gentle  lady  to  whom 
they  were  addressed.  They  gratify  me  exceedingly  by 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  573 

proving  the  maxim  to  be  false,  that  the  love  and  the 
practice  of  poetry  as  the  accomplishments  of  a  scholar 
and  gentleman,  can  prevent  a  boy  devoted  to  busi 
ness,  from  becoming  a  millionnaire,  and  revelling 
as  the  benefactor  of  his  time  and  of  his  neighbor 
hood  in  the  'luxury  of  doing  good.'  I  am  gladdened 
by  hearing  that  I  am  to  share  with  Mr.  Hazard  to 
the  amount  of  a  small  percentage  in  the  immortality 
which  Mr.  A.  B.  Durand's  graceful  pencil1  will  give 
to  his  pleasant  song.  To  what  percentage  am  I  en 
titled?" 

On  Sunday,  the  iyth  November,  ten  days  after 
writing  the  above  letter,  the  poet  walked  out  for  the 
last  time.  On  Monday  and  Tuesday  he  complained  of 
feeling  very  unwell,  and  during  that  time  received 
several  visits  from  his  physician.  He  retired  earlier 
than  usual  Tuesday  evening,  saying  to  his  sister,  "  I 
am  afraid  I  shall  not  live  until  morning."  A  few 
minutes  before  eleven  Miss  Halleck  went  to  her  bro 
ther's  room,  and  found  him  sitting  up  in  the  bed.  He 
spoke  to  her,  and  a  moment  after  fell  back  dead — ex 
piring  without  a  moan  or  a  struggle. 

The  poet's  mental  faculties  were  unimpaired,  and 
his  benignant  and  genial  smile  continued  to  the  last, 
although  his  eyes,  "  those  windows  of  the  body  and 
glasses  of  the  soul,"  as  old  Boiastuan  calls  them, 

1  Mr.  Durand  painted  a  noble  landscape,  illustrating  the  scene  of  the 
song,  "  Floy  Van  Cortlandt." 


tj74  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

were  dimmed  by  increasing  infirmities  and  loss  of 
strength.  Dr.  Canfield,  who  attended  the  poet  in 
his  last  illness,  informs  me  that  his  death  was  caused 
by  bronchial  disease,  terminating  in  effusion  of  the 
lungs. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Friday,  November  22d,  a 
hearse,  containing  the  earthly  remains  cf  the  poet,  fol 
lowed  by  a  long  procession  of  mourners  on  foot,  at  the 
head  of  which  walked  Miss  Halleck  and  her  cousin 
Charles  Eliot,  both  in  their  eightieth  year,  left  his  late 
residence  and  proceeded  to  Christ  Church.  The  coffin, 
which  bore  the  simple  record,  "  Fitz-Greene  Halleck, 
aged  77  years,"  and  on  which  lay  a  floral  wreath,  cross, 
and  lyre,  was  carried  to  the  front  of  the  chancel,  and 
the  service  of  the  Episcopal  Church  was  read  by  the  rec 
tor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bennett,  assisted  by  the  Rev.  C.  W. 
Everest,  of  Hamden,  after  which  his  kinsmen,  friends, 
and  neighbors  were  gratified  with  a  last  view  of  the  poet's 
fine  features,  to  which  death  had  added  a  more  than 
earthly  beauty.  From  the  church,  the  poet's  troops 
of  friends,  in  carriages  and  on  foot,  followed  his  remains 
to  the  Alderbrook  Cemetery,  situated  about  a  mile  dis 
tant  from  the  village-green,  and  heard  the  beautiful 
and  impressive  burial-service  of  the  English  Church 
read,  after  his  remains  were  slowly  lowered  to  their  long 
home  by  the  side  of  his  father's  grave.  The  fresh  earth 
soon  again  filled  the  narrow  house ;  kinsmen,  friends, 
and  spectators  departed,  and  silence  reigned  over  the 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


575 


scene.  To  quote  a  few  lines  from  Edmund  Spenser, 
one  of  his  favorite  authors  : 

"  Here  may  thy  storme-belt  vessell  safely  ryde, 
This  is  the  porte  of  reste  from  troublous  toyle, 
The  world's  sweet  inn  from  paine  and  wearisome  turmoyle." 

From  all  parts  of  the  country  the  death  of  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck  called  forth  kindly  and  appreciative 
notices  of  the  man  as  well  as  the  poet.  His  personal 
friends,  Cozzens,  Curtis,  Duyckinck,  Prentice,  Tucker- 
man,  and  Wilson,  each  paid  tributes  to  the  memory 
of  him  whose 

" lyre  told  of  Athenian  lands  ;  " 

and  numerous  societies  throughout  the  United  States, 
of  which  he  was  an  honorary  or  corresponding  member, 
passed  appropriate  resolutions  in  reference  to  his  death. 
The  New- York  Historical  Society  invited  William  Cul- 
len  Bryant  to  prepare  a  discourse  on  the  life  and  genius 
of  his  brother-bard,  to  be  delivered  before  the  Society 
at  a  special  meeting  to  be  held  for  that  purpose.  This 
invitation  has  been  accepted  by  the  distinguished  poet, 
who  will  hereafter  speak  appreciatively  and  eloquently 
of  Halleck,  as  he  has  already  spoken  in  past  years  of 
his  literary  contemporaries  Cooper  and  Irving. 

Honors  to  Halleck  were  not  confined  to  his  native 
land.  The  classic  country,  whose  hero  the  poet  so 


576  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

eloquently  celebrated,  also  mourned  his  death,  and 
cherishes  his  memory.  Greece,  through  one  of  her 
leading  journals,  says:  "  Died  lately  at  Guilford,  Con 
necticut,  the  most  beloved  and  most  wide-famed  of  all 
the  poets  of  the  New  World,  Fitz-Greene  Halleck.  An 
American  by  birth,  sentiment,  and  education,  he  was 
entirely  self-taught,  self-tutored,  thus  resembling  his 
master  and  predecessor  Shakespeare  and  many  others. 
Halleck  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Nature,  to 
the  study  of  which  he  early  applied  himself  with  the 
greatest  assiduity ;  and  all  his  descriptions  thereof  are 
at  once  faithful  and  simple,  beautiful  and  natural.  To 
every  leaf  of  a  tree,  to  every  feather  of  a  bird,  to  each 
brightly-twinkling  star,  did  he  lend  a  language  to  the 
praise  of  Him  who  laid  the  chief  corner-stone  of  crea 
tion,  l  when  the  stars  of  the  morning  sang  together, 
and  the  sons  of  God  thrilled  with  joy.'  Who  has  ever 
read  that  magnificent  poem  of  the  American  bard  on 
'  The  Waters  of  Babylon,'  without  shedding  a  tear  ? 
who  could  ever  forget  the  heart-rending  accents  of  his 
mournful  lyre,  as  he  laments  the  death  of  his  friend 
Drake  ?  These  two,  as  well  as  several  other  poems  of 
Halleck,  shine  as  bright,  sparkling  diamonds  in  the 
literature  of  the  English  tongue,  as  well  in  the  beauty 
of  the  style,  as  in  the  rich  abundance  of  the  figures  and 
the  sublimity  of  the  versification.  But  his  chief  title 
to  glory  is  the  ode  to  '  Marco  Bozzaris,'  which  he 
composed  in  the  year  1823,  and  which  has  elicited 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  577 

the    praise    and    admiration    of   the    whole    civilized 
world." 

An  article  on  Halleck  in  Appletons'  Annual  Cy 
clopaedia,  for  1867,  closes  with  these  words:  "Of  his 
poems  it  has  been  well  said,  that  ( their  brilliancy  of 
thought,  quaintness  of  fancy,  and  polished  energy  of 
diction,  have  given  them  a  rank  in  American  literature 
from  which  they  will  not  soon  be  displaced  even  by  the 
many  admirable  productions  of  a  later  date.  In  spicy 
pungency  of  satire,  and  a  certain  elegance  and  grace  of 
manner,  without  an  approach  to  stiffness  or  formality, 
they  have  few  parallels  in  modern  poetry.  Their  tone 
is  that  of  a  man  of  the  world,  handling  a  pen  caustic 
and  tender  by  turns,  with  inimitable  ease ;  leaving  no 
trace  of  the  midnight  oil,  though  often  elaborated  with 
exquisite  skill,  and  entirely  free  from  both  the  rust  and 
the  pretension  of  recluse  scholarship.'  Mr.  Halleck 
was  a  man  of  a  singularly  social  turn  of  mind,  delight 
ing  in  gay  and  cordial  fellowship,  brimming  over  with 
anecdote  and  whimsical  conceits,  with  remarkable 
power  of  narration,  unfeignedly  fond  of  discussion  and 
argument,  and  often  carrying  his  ingenuity  to  the  ex 
treme  verge  of  paradox.  His  personal  bearing  was  in 
a  high  degree  impressive  and  winning.  His  presence 
had  a  wonderful  charm  for  almost  all  classes  of  persons. 
His  wit,  while  keen  and  biting  at  times,  was  never  ill- 
natured,  and  only  severe  when  directed  against  igno 
rant  and  .pompous  pretension." 
25 


Ejyg  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

Of  the  allusions  to  his  death  contained  in  private 
letters,  I  can  give  but  a  single  paragraph,  written  by 
the  venerable  poet  Dana,  who  says :  "I  wrote  to  you 
to  get  more  particulars  about  Halleck.  Soon  after 
came  a  letter  from  Bryant,  telling  me  a  good  deal 
about  him.  It  was  touching  to  hear  that  they  were 
arranging  to  get  up  a  dinner  for  him  just  as  the  news 
came  of  his  death.  The  intention  must  have  been 
gratifying  to  him.  Had  he  lived,  how  his  genial  na 
ture  would  have  enjoyed  it,  and  what  life  and  merri 
ment  he  would  have  spread  round  the  board  !  What 
a  hush  there  is  !  I  know  of  no  other  man  whom  I  had 
seen  so  little,  and  liked  so  well.  Doubtless,  he  was  a 
thoughtful  man,  and  reached  in  thought  beyond  this 
world." 

The  statements  made  by  several  prominent  journals 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  reference  to  Mr.  Halleck's 
religion,  are  erroneous.  He  was  born,  lived,  and  died, 
in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  of  "which  Church 
he  was  a  member,  having  been  confirmed  in  his  youth. 
"What  men,"  says  Humboldt,  "believe  or  disbelieve 
is  usually  made  a  subject  of  discussion  only  after  their 
death :  after  one  has  been  officially  buried,  and  a  fu 
neral  sermon  has  been  read  over  one  by  Sydow." 1  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Bennett,  of  Grace  Church,  Guilford,  has  fur- 


1  Von  Sydow,  one  of  the  chaplains  of  the  Prussian  court,  who 
usually  preached  the  funeral  sermons  of  people  of  distinction  buried  in 
Berlin. 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  579 

nished  me  with  an  authoritative  communication 1  on  the 
subject  of  the  poet's  religious  belief,  which  must  for 
ever  put  this  matter  at  rest. 

A  few  months  after  the  poet's  death  a  number  of 
friends  and  admirers  erected  over  his  grave,  at  Guil- 
ford,  an  appropriate  and  enduring  granite  monument, 
on  which  is  the  simple  inscription  : 

"  FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK, 
1790-1867. 

'ONE   OF  THE   FEW,    THE   IMMORTAL  NAMES 
THAT  WERE  NOT  BORN  TO  DIE.'  " 

On  Wednesday  morning,  August  26,  1868,  the  re 
mains  of  the  poet  and  those  of  his  father,  Israel  Hal- 
leek,  were  removed  from  their  first  place  of  burial  to 
the  new  monument  grounds,  in  the  presence  of  several 
kinsmen  and  intimate  friends.  Mr.  Halleck's  coffin 
was  uninjured,  having  been  interred  for  so  short  a 
period;  but  of  his  father,  who  was  buried  in  1839, 
there  remained  nothing  but  the  skeleton  and  skull,  on 
which  the  thick,  bushy  gray  hair  was  still  visible.  The 
names  of  the  poet's  mother  and  his  only  brother  ap 
pear  on  the  monument,  but  they  are  not  interred 
underneath,  their  remains  reposing  on  the  spot 
where  they  were  originally  buried,  by  the  side  of  the 

1  Vide  APPENDIX  to  this  volume. 


580  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

old  Episcopal  Church,  which  stood  on  the  Guilford 
Green. 

Near  the  base  of  the  monument  has  been  placed 
by  loving  hands,  and  is  now  growing  over  the  poet's 
grave,  an  ivy,  part  of  the  vine  brought  over  the  broad 
sea  from  Melrose  Abbey  and  planted  by  Irving  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  where  it  clings  rejoicingly  around 
the  walls  of  his  picturesque  cottage  at  Sunnyside.  A 
sum  of  money  has  been  securely  invested  in  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Alderbrook  Cemetery,  the  income 
of  which  is  to  be  forever  applied  to  keeping  Halleck's 
monument  and  the  monument  grounds  in  good  pres 
ervation,  so  that  when  all 

"  —  those  who  bless  him  now  and  love  him  " 

shall  have  passed  away,  the  wish  he  so  tenderly  and 
touchingly  expressed  in  behalf  of  his  lamented  friend 
Drake,  and,  in  another  poem,  for  himself,  shall  be  ful 
filled.  The  income  from  the  amount  invested  will 
keep  forever 

"  The  grass  green  where  in  death  he  sleeps." 

Of  the  estimation  in  which  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  is 
held,  a  good  illustration  was  given  at  the  sale  by  auc 
tion,  in  New  York,  of  his  library,  in  October,  where 
volumes  of  little  or  no  intrinsic  value  brought  large 
sums,  simply  as  souvenirs  of  the  poet,  whose  autograph 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK.  ^gl 

was  contained  in  most  of  the  books  sold.  A  few  in 
stances  may  not  be  without  interest.  Bryant's  "  Thirty 
Poems,"  I2mo,  cloth,  with  the  author's  autograph, 
$11  ;  "  The  Cabinet  of  Biography,"  small  i6mo,  with 
J.  J.  Astor's  autograph,  $11.50;  the  poet's  early  copy 
of  "Campbell,"  dated  1804,  I2mo,  sheep,  $8.50; 
Coleridge's  Poems,  small  i6mo,  with  pencilled  notes 
by  Halleck,  $10;  presentation  copy  from  Charles 
Dickens  of  "  Nicholas  Nickleby,"  8vo,  cloth,  $18; 
do.  "Barnaby  Rudge,"  8vo,  cloth,  $15  ;  Halleck's 
"Fanny,"  half-dollar  edition  of  1819,  with  name  left 
blank,  filled  out  in  the  handwriting  of  the  poet,  $10; 
and  a  copy  of  "  Young  America,"  published  at  fifty 
cents,  containing  an  alteration  of  a  single  word  by  Mr. 
Halleck,  sold  for  $2.50. 

In  the  month  of  November  there  was  issued  a 
new  edition  of  Halleck's  poetical  writings,  containing 
many  hitherto  unpublished  poems,  which  are  marked 
by  the  characteristic  grace  and  melody  of  his  most 
admired  compositions;  also  several  translations  from 
the  French,  German,  and  Italian,  that  then  appeared  in 
print  for  the  first  time,  together  with  "The  Croakers," 
never  before  included  in  the  collected  editions  of  Fitz- 
Greene  Halleck's  poems.  The  value  of  the  volume  is 
enhanced  by  notes  to  "Fanny,"  "  The  Recorder,"  and 
to  "The  Croakers;"  by  a  portrait  of  the  poet  from 
Elliott's  picture,  and  a  spirited  illustration  of  the  poem 
of  "  Marco  Bozzaris." 


582  LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF 

I  know  not  how  I  can  more  fittingly  conclude  this 
biography  of  "  not  only  the  sweetest,  but  the  greatest, 
poet  America  has  yet  produced,"  and  whose  uneventful 
career — 

"  A  gentle  wafting  to  immortal  life  " — 

I  have  endeavored  to  trace  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  as  far  as  possible  in  his  own  words  and  letters, 
than  by  quoting  the  beautiful  passage  with  which  his 
life-long  friend  William  Cullen  Bryant  closed  a  dis 
course  on  the  character  and  genius  of  Washington 
Irving,  delivered  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  April  3, 
1860.  Mr.  Bryant  said :  "  If  it  were  becoming,  at  this 
time  and  in  this  assembly,  to  address  our  departed 
friend  as  if  in  his  immediate  presence,  I  would  say, 
'  Farewell,  thou  who  hast  entered  into  the  rest  prepared 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world  for  serene  and  gentle 
spirits  like  thine.  Farewell,  happy  in  thy  life,  happy 
in  thy  death,  happier  in  the  reward  to  which  that  death 
was  the  assured  passage;  fortunate  in  attracting  the 
admiration  of  the  world  to  thy  beautiful  writings  :  still 
more  fortunate  in  having  written  nothing  which  did  not 
tend  to  promote  the  reign  of  magnanimous  forbearance 
#nd  generous  sympathies  among  thy  fellow-men.  The 
brightness  of  that  enduring  fame  which  thou  hast  won 
on  earth  is  but  a  shadowy  symbol  of  the  glory  to  which 
thou  art  admitted  in  the  world  beyond  the  grave.  Thy 


FITZ-GREENE  HALLECK. 


533 


errand  upon  earth  was  an  errand  of  peace  and  good 
will  to  men,  and  thou  art  now  in  a  region  where  hatred 
and  strife  never  enter,  and  where  the  harmonious  ac 
tivity  of  those  who  inhabit  it  acknowledges  no  impulse 
less  noble  or  less  pure  than  that  of  love.'  " 


APPENDIX. 


MAPKOZ    BOTZAPH2 

noiHM  A 

AAAEKOY  (HALLECK) 


M€<TOVVKTIOV  etVat,  K   euros  Ttjs  o~Krjvrjs  TOU, 
do~(pa\<t)s  (ppoupoup-eV^y,  6  TovpKos  Kot/zarat. 
Qopvflova'i  TOV  vovv  TOV  uveipav  dirdrttl, 
Tj^y  'EXXciSa  TrprjvTj  7ra>s  7ne£  17  Icr^vs  TOU, 

5    7Toi)S  VIK.5.  Kal  TTfOS  (T(pd£fl  €IS  T*  OVflpOV  /SXeVei, 

K   els  TOV  Tro'Xe/zov  Sepoy  rp07rauoi>  TTOJV  SpeVf  t. 
Kat  ety  r   o^etpov  fji€\rj  aKOvei 
Kai  dyaXXfrat  Scopa  SouXruvou 
Kat  v'fyoiiTai,  v-^sovrai  avrbs  fls 
10  Kat  6  fouy  rou,  eWoy  IlapaSeio-ou 

a  OTTCO?  6  VTTVOS  TOV  (pfpet  6  yorjs. 


Meo-ovvKTiov  elvai  '  6  EoTo-aprjs  rarret 

eV  o-Kiais  TOV  dpvfiov  TOV  SouXt'ov  ra  (TTi(f)rj. 

^llaav  avdpes  ^aXt'/3^ti/ot,  ofa  ra  ^'(p?;, 

15   a  f]  u8fj.r}Tos  x€*i-P  T^v  fjpoxav  c'/fparet. 
Muptu^ey  Tlfpo-cov  exet  aXXore  ^o-ai/, 
r^s  IlXaratay  ro  e5a(poy  op-coy  (TKipTfjo~av, 
errort'o-^'  ety  TO  atp-ci  TCOV  K'  e(pv(T€ 
'E/cet  to-TaTai  ^'S?;  6  Xo^oy  TCOI/  vecoi', 

20  TOJ*  Sptap./3ovy  r^^aravT  dep'  d 


APPENDIX.  585 


pav,  e^co  v  (TTrjdos  yevvalovj 
va  KTVTra.  va  VIKO.,  as  ol  avo~pfs  ol  Trpnrjv. 


Mia  copa  irapijXde  KOI  T'  ovap  eXv 
oi'Se  fldev  6  TovpKos  TTOT  aXXo  n\rjv  TOVTCOV  • 
25  Koi  r]KOvo~@'  TJ  (pcojfrj  TU>V  (ppovpwv  Trpos  TO.  7r\r)dr)  • 
"Etsra  OTrXa!   CO  f/E\\rjvl   CO  "EXX^i/  !   'iSoi;  rovl  " 
Kai  rjyepdr],  aXXa  OTTO)?  TreV  etp 


rutv  (Tfpaipwv  as  6  Sdvaros  7rep.7rei  e/iecr<Ta)i/, 

30  oi/xco-ycoj/  eKJTVt6vr&Vi  (pvywv  KOL  TrX^ycov, 
Kal  (fiatvrjv  Xa/JiTrporepav  aKovarrj  craXrrryycoi/, 
ws  6  Borcrapr/s1  Kpd£ei,  TO  £i(pos  TOV  atyiyy&v  • 
Ur/O(ra)  ets  JJLOVOS  eVoyrXoy  Trveet,  KruTrare, 
r^i/  •yfjy  aaxrare,  yJ)  TCOI>  narepatv  tras  ^TO, 

35  Kat  yevvaioi  rrjs  TTi'trrecoj  eore  Trpocrrarat. 
Me^'  fj/juav  6  Geos1,  K*  17  Trarpiy  TJ/J-MV  ^rco  !  " 
K'  €7ro\ep.rj(rav  ws1  aya$ot  crrparicorat, 
Kat  VfKpuv  els  TO  X^p-a.  eo~u)pevo~av  vrX?^^, 
Kal  77  i/tK?7  ra  oVXa  rcov  e'(TTe<pei',  ore 

40  icat  6  BoTO~apr)s  TrirrTei  TpaQeis  ctp  ra  (TTrjdr). 
Toov  arvvTpo(p(i)V  TOV  oaoi  (Tco^eWe?,  oXiyot, 
ei?  ro  (i%povv  TOV  ^elXoy  //ei8i'a/xa  eidov 
orai/  TjfyyeiXe  j/iVr;t/  ro  aa-/ia  6  ?|Soi', 
or'  €o-Tpd(pr],  KOI  eide  TOV  Tovp<ov  va  (pvyy. 

45   K'  etra  ei'Sof,  K-f<rft6&0T)  TO  XII/JLTTOV  TOV  /3\e'/z/ia, 


TOVS  yopyovs  o(p^aX/xou?,  a>y  ei?  VTTVOV  ^pe'f 
a)9  ro  avdos,  onoTav  6  TJ\LOS  $vo~r]. 


Ets  TOI/  SaXa/xoi/,  Sawir',  e'X$e  TCOI/ 
50  TTpoy  p.r)T€pa  e'X^e,  oTav  r*  o/i/xa  T^ 

/SXeTT?;  TrpwTov  darTepa  (TTopyrjs  v  dvaTe\\y. 
yE\6e  or'  eXevQepa  3eo-/icoj/  17 
25* 


586  APPENDIX. 


Trjv  acnrpav  TIJS  TTVOTJV  es  TTJV  yrjv 

K   eprjuovvrai  %a)p[a.  KOL  K\ci!.ovcn,  noXeis 

55  ij  a>s  voaros  e'X$e,  as 

cos  (reicrfjibs  avciTpeircoV)  rj 

T)  OTTOTCIV  opya  evrv^r/s 

1}  fis  TTOTOVS,  els  acrfJiara  rj  els  o 

etVat  ^>a(r/xa  aTratcrtoy.      SKoros1  a 

60  rdcfros  //e'Xay,  /cat  /ccoScor,  KCU  jj-dpfiapov  Kpiiov, 
aycoi/tai  Kai  yoot  xal  pvcreis  ^aKpvcuv^ 
yfcocrrot,  ayvaxrroi  0o/3ot,  eiVii/  o?raSot  crou. 


'AXX'  ets  77pcoa  oorrts 

civ  rr]v  VLKTJV  avT&v  d(T(pa\if  f) 

65  f)  (pcovf}  crov  r)%fl  KaOtos  \6yos  7rpo<pr}TOV 
fvXoyias  K  €v%as  els  rov  rdcpov  TOV  (pepcov 
T(£>V  Trapovrav  yevcav  KCU  ysv&v  TOOV  vcrrepuiv. 
EXae  OTO.V  TJJS  dd£r/s  K6p8r)o-r)  TO  orejUjiia, 
f\0e  (pepuv  rrjv  8d<pvr]V  rjv  cfta^rev  aZ/xa, 

70  e'X^e  o/  ev(pr)/j.r)Tai,  KOI  earriv  6 
6  cr/3e<rr6f  u(pda\fj.6s  crov 
ws  rw  {GOVT*  els  flpKr^v  T   ovpavov  ol 
Kai  at  ^eTpej  crou,  a)?  rr/v  ^WYJV  TOV  e 
d8e\(pov  £evayo\  rw  e(pdvrj(rav  x€^PfS- 

75   Kai  oTTorav  TOV  eKpa^as,  fjv  r]  Kpavyr]  crov 
ota  r/v  els  TOV  peyav  vlov  Tr/s  Tevorjs 
f)  dyyei\acra  OTI  tyyvs  TJV  Trjs  vr/arov 
TWV  'ivdaJv.  d(f)   rjs,  apu/Jia  (pepovo-*  dXo?;?, 
rw  Trpoo-envevo-ev  avpa  Sfp/t)),  ^e^upTris-, 

80  KCU  diearrreipov  /SaXaa/i'  dvQwv  oi  rapa-ot  TT]*, 
OT  euooSft?  eKTacreis  Trepdaaaa  x^-o^y, 
els  TO  KVfjLa  e(pvcr'  a7ra\oos  Trjs  'Aires'. 

Kfuro,  Boro-ap?;,  orrov  TOO-OVTOI  fteyaXot, 

ovs  eyypdcj)   f)  KXeia)  els  ray  fie'Xrous  TTJS  /J.vi]fjLrjs. 


APPENDIX.  587 

85  Tdcpos  ovTis  TrfV  (f)f]p.r)v  TOV  croD  UTrfp/^uXXei 


rrjs  (pr}p.r]s» 

'H  'EXXa?  5ei/  cr   cKrjdevcre  cpepouo-'  dv6eu>v 
v^Kpaxri/Jicov  crrecpdVou?  7r\e<rovs  els  TCIS  %elpa? 
.  ouS'  fKokv^e  aou  TOV  veitpov  els  iropcpvpas, 
90   eViSei^-ety  vro/iTrcoy  roO  ^avdrov  p-araicov. 
TI\r)v  Trjpfl  crov  rr}v  /ZI^J/JUT/J/,  vlov  ov  e^t'Xft, 
ov  TTiKpa  TJ)I>  wpfpdvevarev  acopos  juoipa. 
Aia  ae  TOV  XOLTTOV  TWV  viu>v  TTJS  f)  Xupa, 
KOL  TOV  \l/d\TOV  TO.  /Me'X?;,  TOV  ykvTTTov  fj  o-p.i\rj 
95  Sta  ere  ot  yew«2fXtot  ^oi  KcoScovcoi/, 
Sa  x^eXXi'^oui/  ras1  irpdt-eis  ras  eras  ra 
Sta  (re  Sa  npoo-evx^TaL  7ra(ra  KapSi'a 
etff  KaXu/3a?  TTTCO^COV  K*  ets  auXas  jy 
Toi)  ovrXirof,  opdoVTOs  Trpos  ere  roi/  di/Spetoi/, 

100  avdpeioTepov  Ste'Xei  KTvrra  6  f£pa%itdv  • 

Kal  f)  /cop'  jy  TviO'Trj  rou,  deiXr)  coj  epcocra, 
eiy  TO  rtXo?  ro  /ie'ya  ro  cro^  ac^opcocra, 
riyy  po?)y  rail/  mKpwv  TTJS  3a  navy  daKpva>v. 
Kal  7^  p-TjTT]p  TWV  TSKVCOV  o~ov,  dy  KOI  ayyeXXet 

105  6  o~/3eo~Tos  6<pdaXfj.os  Kal  T  w^pov  p.€Ta>7r6v  TTJ 


KUI  ra?  6\L\l/~eis  ras  i/C^,  a?  z/a  K\a.vo~r) 
«ai  >7  c^pe'^acra  ere  ety  dy/caXr^v  fjLrjrpiav 


110  Trept  erou  /Lter'  avvypav  XaXoCcrtv  o 

eyiietSj)  eXevdepwv  dvdp&v  Trpcorocrrdr/ys1 
r^y  Trarpt'So?  ro  ^i'0os  e'/CTTfe'coi/ 
'Savvv  els  x°P°v  d 


588  APPENDIX. 


^    BOTZAPH2. 

Tecapylov  A.  Kavd\7], 

To  p.eo~ovvKTiov  6  'Qdcouavos  evvTTVid^ero  els  TTJV  irecppov- 
vrjlt  avTov  o-KTjvrjv  Trepl  rrjv  wpav  fKfivrjV  Kaff  fjv  rj  'E\\ds 
K\ivovo-a  iKfTLKov  yovv  ep,eXXe  ra  rpeprj  f^Trpocrdev  Trjs  dvvd- 
fj-ews  avrov.  Ety  ra  evvrrvid  rov  avros  efapve  peragv  rwv 
TTfdioov  TTJS  jua^j^?,  Kai  TGOV  avTOKparopiKaiv  avAcov,  ra  rponaia 
KaTaKTT]Tov.  Ety  TO.  fvvTTVid  Tov  rjKpodadr)  TOV  Tratdva  TTJS 
VIKTJS,  .....  ara  e/Sa^ev  eVi  TOV  daKTvKov  rrjv  d 
TOV  rjyf/Jiovos  .....  etra  cVi  TOV  ^povov  TOV  iyepovos  e'/cu 
Bao-iXei/y,  .....  37  Se  (pavTaaia  rou,  v^nreTrjs  KCU  TrotKt- 

\OTTTfpOS,  U>p,OLU^€  TO  TTT^VOV  TOV  TTapaSeiCTOV, 

To  pto-ovvKTiov  VTTO  TT)i>  (TKidv  TOV  ddcrovs,  6  ~BoT(Tapr]s 
npofTOifjLa^€  TOV  Xoftov  Totv  SouXtcoraJv  rov,  TnaTatv  a>s  6 
o~i8r)pos  Tu>v  d6doKtfj.ao~p.£V(OV  avTOiif  pa^atpw 
Kapdia  Kal  X61P^'  'E/ceT  01  Ilepcrai  tVrai/ro  %i\iddes 
€<el  xaipovaa  r)  yrj  emeu  TO  aip.a  rco^,  f  Is  TTJV  dp^aiav 
Ttov  nXaraiaii',  vvv  de  ol  viol  rtov  e'/cel  vLKrjo~dvTcov 
dvaTrveovai  Ti]V  avTrjv  fjpa'iKrjv  avpav  /ue  X€^Pa  £Toip,ov  va 
AcrvTra,  Kai  KapSiav  va  roX/xa  TOQ-OV  TTpodvfJLcos  Kal  t 

OCTOZ'  fKelvOt. 


Mt'a  copa  $if)\6ev,  Kal  6  'OOauavos  e^vTrvrjcrev,  TO 

oveipov  TJTOV  TO  TfXfVTalov  TOV.  AVTOS  e^vTrvrjarev  Iva 
ady  TOVS  (pv\aKas  TOV  Kpavyd£oi>TOS)  .....  "  els  TO, 
oyrXa,  epxovTai  ol  r'E\\rjvfs  .....  ol  r'E\\r)ves."  'Egvn-vrja-fv 
Iva  dnoQavrj  ev  jueacp  <p\oywv  Kal  Kairvov,  ev  /zeVw  Kpavy&v, 
dvao-TfvayiJ.S)V  Kal  nXrjyccv  .....  ev  p.ecro)  TWV  %avaTr)(p6pa)V 
/SoXt'coi/  TTITTTOVT&V  Too~ov  TTVKvu  Kal  6ypr)yopa,  oo~ov  at  dcrTpa- 
Tral  OTTO  ra  opeivd  crvvvecpa,  .....  Kai  r]Kpoda&r]  a>s  craXmyya 
TTJV  (poavrjv  TOV  EoTadprj  fvOappvvovTos  TOV  Xo'^ov  rou  ..... 


APPENDIX.  589 

ae^piaoTOV  6  reXeuratoy  eVoTrXoy  e%6pbs  eKnvev- 
077.      Krurrare !   did  ra  @vo~iao~Tr]pid   eras  Kal  ray  (arias  eras. 

KruTrare  !  did  rot's  x\oepovs  rd(povs  ra>i>  Trpoyovoov  (ray, 

Sia  TOV  Qeov  Kal  TTJV  Trarpi'Sa  o~as !  " 

'ETroXep^o'ai',    a>y     TraXXi/cupia    KaprfpiKooy  Kal    dv8peia>s* 
Avrol  eVrpcocraz/  ro  edafpos  fJ-e  (povevp-fvovs  MovaovXfj-dvovS) — 
,  dXX'   o   Borcrap^y    erreo'ey  alp.aToppvTos  drro  K.d6e 
Qi  oXt'yot  ai»roO  diatruidfi'Tes  crvvrpocpoi  f 
rov,  a>y  ai  V7T6pt)(pai>oi  avrwv  Kpavyal 

avrovs  Kvpiovs  TOV  alp.arr]pov  TreSiou Efra  TOV  eldov 

vd  affjaXiar)  8tu  TTUVTOS  ra  (B\t(papd  TOV  fjav^cos,  cos  av  TJTO 
did  eorTffpivov  VTTVOV, —  cos  ra  av6r\  fjifrd  TTJV  bixriv  TOV  f]\tov. 

'Q,  Savare,  f\6e  els  TOV  vv/JifpiKov  KoiToova^  e\de  els  TTJV 
p.r)Tepa,  oTav  Kara  TrpwrTyf  (popdv  alo~6dveTai  TTJV  dvaivvor^v  roG 
7rp<ororo'Kou  r?;y  •  e'X^e  orai/  at  cv\oyrjfj.evat.  crfppayides  at 
e'/Li(pparrovo"at  rov  XOI/JLOV  rjvai  dvfa>yp.€vai)  Kal  rro\vav8poi 
no\fts  %pr]vcoo-i  TO  KTV7TT]fji.d  TOV,  f\6e  ev  popcpfi  o-xeXercoSovy 
<p$urecoy,  eV  r^  exp^ei  roO  o"eio"juoC,  eV  r^  TpiK.vp.ia  TOV 
wKeavov,  €\6e  oTav  rj  Kapdia  nd\\r]  o~(po8pa>s  Kal 
p.e  vp.vovs  crvfj-noo-Lov^  pe  x°P°v  Ka*L  °^vov  •  ro're  eio- 
roy, — ro  SaKpv,  6  aVacrrevayp-oy,,  ro  veKpoo"t]n.ap.a^  TO  p.avpo 
ro  v€KpoKpdj3j3aTov,  Kal  ndv  on  rpop.fpoi'  Kal  (ppiKTOTV 
op.ev  r)  evvTTVia£6}jie6a  rj  (poftovpfda  elvai 

'AXX'  ety  TOV  rjpcoa^  OTav  f)  cmdBr]  TOV  fVLKt]o~fv 
did  TTJV  cXfV&ptay,  r]  (poovf)  o-ov,  a>  Sat'are,  ^6i  wy  Xo'yoy 
irpo(pr]Tov,  Kal  els  TOVS  p.avTfiovs  TTJS  TOVOVS  aKovovTai  ai 
e^apio'rr}a'€iy  p-vpiav  fTrep^op-evcov  yeveaiv.  'EX^e  OTUV  TO 
epyov  TOV  TTJS  86£r)s  exreXeo"^^,  e'X$e  p.e  ro  (pvXXov  TJJS  $d(pvr]s 
TTJS  TO  81  ai'p-aroy  dyopao-dev,  e\6e  fls  TTJV  SpiapftevTiKrjv 
avTTJs  &paVj  Kal  rore  ro  pj)  erriyeiov  (pu>s  TOV  (pflivovros 
op/naroy  o"ov  eiy  avTov  elvai  evdpeo-Tov  as  f)  o^is  TOV  ovpavov 
Kal  T&V  do~Tfp(i)V  els  TOVS  <pv\aKio~uevovs.  'H  d(pr]  o~ov  elvai 


ljC)o  APPENDIX. 

XapOTTOia  cos  f]  xf^P  "SfXcpoC  *  iff  £*vrjv  yrjv.  'H  K\rj(Tis  (TOV 
eudpecrros1,  cos  f)  elrrovora  els  TOV  veovs  Koo~fJ.ovs  QrjToiiVTa 
Tevovrjvariov,  01  \  at  'ifStKat  vrjo~oi  f)o~av  ir\r]o~Lov^  orav  f) 
£f(pvpios  avpa  UTTO  KrjTrcov  Kal  TroproKaXecov  Kat  evo$iao~TiKO)V 
e(pvo~cvo~ev  vTrepdva  TU>V  S>aXao~cra>f  TTJS  Xatrta?. 

!   /nera  rcov  Trepc/cXecov  rjpdxnv  ovs  f)  'EXXas  az/e- 


ovre  els  avrrjv  TTJV  ieVSo^ov  y^y  T7?y. 
V£Kp6(rr)p,a  (popepara  8ia  a"e,  ot/Vc  diera^ev  TO  0"/co- 
Tftyov  veKpoKpd{3[BaTov  va  Kvp-aTicrrj  TO  vTepov  rou,  —  cos  p,apa- 
p-evos  K\ddos  OTTO  TO  ^pov  SeVSpov  TOU  Sa^uTou,  eis  rrop,TrrjV 
Kal  TrapaTaf-iv  XvnrjS)  —  Kfvrjv  erridei^iv  TOV  Tacpov  .  'AXX' 
ere  ei'^up-etrat,  wy  eVav  aet  ^ya7rr//xevo^  ai/  Kat  5t'  o\[yov 
a^  Sta  ere  TOU  TTOLTJTOV  TTJS  f]  Xupa  6tVat  eo~T€- 
evrj^  TO.  p-dpfJiapd  TTJS  yeyXu/zeVa,  Kai  rj  p.ovo~tK.r]  TTJS 
TY\V  p.e\(po'i.av  TTJS*  Ata  o~e  avTrj  Kpovei  TOVS 

TTJS  yevvrjaews  crov.  Ilepi  CTOU  etVai  ot 
TU>V  vrjTriav  TTJS^  vnep  TCOI>  o~vyyev<3v  o~ov  rj  eanepivrj 
TTJS  Trpoo'ev^j)  7T/300"(pepeTai  OTTO  TT)I/  p,fya\07Tpe7rrj  K\ivrjv  TOV 
TraXaTtof,  ?)  OTTO  TO^  Kpa.ftfia.TQV  Trjs  KaXvftrjs*  'O  o~Tpa.Tia>Tr]s 
crvvafTT6p.€VOs  /Lie  TOV  e^Gpov  St'Set  Sta  \dpiv  (rov  p.aXXoi>  Sla^a- 
Tr)(popov  KTV7rrjfJ,a.  'H  appajBcoviao-pevrj  TrapOevos  OTO.V  (j)o^?]- 
Tat  TTfpl  tKeiv&Vj  OCTTIS  fivai  r]  xaPa  T^v  veaviKcov  TTJS  xpovatV) 
dvciKaXfl  els  TTJV  p.vr][ji.r)v  TTJS  TTJV  TV^V  croi'»  Kat  o~Tap.u.Ta  TCI 
ftdicpvd  Tt]s.  Kat  at/T?),  77  fj-iJTrjp  TO>V  TfKveov  o~oi;,  KatVot  els 
TO  o/z/za  TTJS  Kal  fj.apaiJL€vr]v  irapeidv  TTJS  avayLVti)0~KfTai 
r\v  8ev  06\ei  va  eK(ppdcrr),  —  ?}  pvr]p.r)  TWV  fVTa<pia 
avTrjs  rjo'ovoSv,-  —  Kat  aKOfJir]  eKeivrj,  TJTIS  ere  eyevvr]o~ev, 
TTJS  eo~Ttay,  els  r^v  7rpoo~e\€vo~ovTai  TroXXot  TrepirjyTjTal)  3e'Xcoo"i 
6/uXe?  TTfpt  Trjs  Ti/xys  (TOV  (ivev  dvao~Tevayp.oV)  SLOTI  dvrjKeis 
fjiaXXov  els  Trjv  (prjjjLrjv  Kal  TT/V  e\ev6epiav^  Kal  TO  ovo/Jid  a~ov 
elvai  fK  T&v  oXtycov  Kat  ddavdfwV)  aTiva  $ev  eyewr]drjo~av  tVa 
OTTO  Odvcc  art. 


APPENDIX. 


PORTRAITS   OF  FITZ-GREENE  IIALLECK. 


591 


1.  Miniature  painted  on   ivory,  in  iSn,  by  an  English 
artist,  known  as  "Mysterious"  Brown,  in  the  possession  of 
the  author. 

2.  Miniature  painted  about  1820,  by  Nathaniel  Rogers,  a 
pupil  of  Brown,  owned  by  William  Loring  Andrews. 

3.  Portrait  in  oil,  painted  about  1820,  by  John  Wesley 
Jarvis,  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  George  C.  DeKay. 

4.  Portrait  in  oil,  painted  about  the  year  1828,  by  Professor 
Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  owned  by  the  Astor  Library. 

5.  A  small  portrait  in  oil,  size  4x6  inches,  painted  about 
1828,  by  Henry  Inman,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Ward. 

6.  Portrait  painted  by  Henry  Inman,  in   1831,   and  the 
best  likeness  ever  made  of  the  poet,  in  the  possession  of 
T.  W.  C.  Moore,  who  kindly  permitted  it  to  be  engraved  for 
this  volume. 

7.  Portrait  painted  about   1836,   by   Samuel   P.    Waldo, 
owned  by  the  New- York  Historical  Society. 

8.  Portrait  painted,  in  1847,  for  the  publishers,  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  and  now  in  their  private  office,  by  C.  L.  Elliott. 

9.  Portrait  by  Thomas  Hicks,  painted  in  1855,  for  Ben 
jamin  R.  Winthrop. 


MR.   HALLECK'S  RELIGIOUS   BELIEF. — STATEMENT  OF   THE 
REV.  DR.'  BENNETT. 

IN  obituary  notices  of  this  distinguished  poet,  in  journals 
entitled  to  respect,  it  has  been  stated  that,  "during  the  latter 
part  of  his  life,  Mr.  Halleck  entered  the  communion  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church."  I  confidently  affirm  that  this 
statement  is  erroneous. 

Mr.  Halleck  returned  to  this,  his  native  town,  in  1849, 
quite  enfeebled  in  health.  Having  been  baptized  and  con 
firmed  in  the  Trotestant  Episcopal  Church,  he  became  at  once 
a  constant  and  apparently  a  devout  attendant  on  my  ministra- 


592 


APPENDIX. 


tions,  and  I  regarded  him  as  an  exemplary  parishioner.  Soon 
rumors  reached  my  ears  that  Mr.  Halleck  was  a  Romanist. 
I  felt  authorized  to  repel  the  imputation.  Rumors,  however, 
have  continued  from  that  time  to  the  present  period,  but, 
viewing  them  as  without  foundation,  I  have  always  endeav 
ored  to  deprive  them  of  credibility;  for,  among  other,  the  fol 
lowing  reasons  : 

Mr.  Halleck  expressed  himself  as  much  interested  in  the 
ministrations  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  which  he 
here  attended ;  and  no  intimation  that  he  dissented  from  any 
sentiment  in  her  Prayer  Book,  or  as  preached  from  her  pulpit, 
ever  came  to  my  knowledge.  Affected,  at  length,  with  deaf 
ness,  he  abstained  from  public  worship.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  mention  in  detail  the  arguments  I  used  in  private  inter 
views,  in  reference  to  his  becoming  a  communicant,  and  to 
his  continued  attendance  on  the  Lord's-day  services.  Though 
I  did  not  prevail,  he  thanked  me  warmly  for  regarding  him 
as  a  parishioner.  While  he  lived,  I  continued  my  visits  in 
that  relationship.  On  one  occasion,  he,  referring  to  the  for 
mer  constancy  of  his  attendance  on  the  services  of  the  Church, 
and  to  his  conscientiously  abstaining  from  attendance  on  certain 
other  ministrations,  thus  decidedly  expressed  his  convictions  : 
"  Mr.  Bennett,  I  regard  yours  as  the  only  true  Church." 
This  was  about  the  time  when  a  biographical  article  was 
published  in  a  periodical,  wherein  he  was  represented  as  a 
Romanist. 

At  another  interview,  when  visiting  him,  accompanied  by 
a  brother-clergyman  (the  Rev.  Francis  T.  Russell,  Rector  of 
St.  Stephen's  Church,  Ridgefield,  Conn.),  who  was  desirous 
of  an  introduction,  Mr.  Halleck  was,  as  usual,  very  affable 
and  free  in  the  expression  of  his  views  of  the  Christian  Faith 
and  the  Christian  Church.  After  we  retired,  I  remarked  to 
my  brother  that  the  rumor  that  Mr.  Halleck  was  a  Romanist 
could  have  no  foundation,  for  his  views,  just  now  expressed, 
were  utterly  irreconcilable  with  that  position.  My  reverend 
brother  entirely  concurred.  The  circumstances  of  the  inter- 


APPENDIX. 


593 


view  were  made  the  subject  of  continued  conversation  be 
tween  us ;  and,  before  parting,  I  requested  him  to  bear  in 
memory  what  had  transpired,  as,  not  improbably,  a  reference 
thereto  might  be  important  toward  biographical  correctness. 
A  letter  received  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Russell  assures  me  of 
his  distinct  remembrance  of  the  interview,  and  of  our  conver 
sation  thereto  following. 

Had  Mr.  Halleck  been  a  communicant  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  I  am  confident  that,  notwithstanding  his  reasons  for 
general  absence  from  public  worship,  he  would  have  been 
present  on  Communion  days.  Romish  services  are  celebrated 
here  at  stated  periods — the  chapel  being  but  a  few  rods  from 
Mr.  Halleck's  late  residence.  Yet  he  never  attended  those 
services.  Had  he  been  in  communion  with  the  Church  of 
Rome,  even  did  he  not  attend  on  her  general  ministrations, 
yet  her  altar  service  would  not  have  been  utterly  forsaken. 
The  fact  that  he  never  attended  on  any  of  the  ministrations 
of  that  Church,  though  celebrated  near  his  very  door,  is,  by 
itself,  to  my  mind,  conclusive  that  he  was  not  a  Romanist. 

That  his  attachment  and  devotion  to  the  Protestant  Epis 
copal  Church  continued  unshaken  to  the  close  of  his  life,  will 
further  appear  from  the  fact  that,  on  every  Lord's  day,  he  not 
only  made  the  Holy  Bible  the  companion  of  his  retirement, 
but  also,  habitually  and  regularly  as  each  Sunday  came,  made 
the  Church  Prayer  Book  the  guide  of  his  devotional  exercises 
— observing  the  full  liturgical  arrangement.  This  was  his 
course  to  the  closing  period  of  his  days,  the  very  last  Sunday 
of  his  life  witnessing  his  use  of  his  Prayer  Book's  cherished 
services. 

Mr.  Halleck's  sister,  who  enjoyed  his  utmost  confidence, 
with  whom  he  resided  the  last  eighteen  years  of  his  life,  and 
to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  information  given  in  the  last 
paragraph,  avers  that  her  brother  was  not  a  Romanist,  but 
that  he  died  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  She  is  very  desirous  that  I,  as 
his  pastor,  make  this  effort  to  counteract  erroneous  state- 


594 


APPENDIX. 


merits,  and  to  rescue  his  memory  from  perhaps  prevalent  mis 
apprehension.  What  is  above  written  has  been  submitted  to 
her,  and  has  her  entire  approval. 

-  Until  facts  are  communicated  which  will  more  than  coun 
terbalance  the  arguments  I  have  advanced,  historical  verity 
requires  the  record  that  our  departed  friend  lived  and  died  in 
the  true  Catholic  faith.  The  funeral  services  were  attended 
at  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  her  office  for  the 
Burial  of  the  Dead  was  uttered  over  his  grave. 

.    LORENZO  T.  BENNETT, 

Rector  of  Christ  Chimh. 
GUILFORD,  CONN.,  Nov.  27,  1867. 


THE  HALLECK  MONUMENT  AND   STATUE. 

The  friends  and  admirers  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  erected, 
in  August,  1868,  an  appropriate  monument  to  his  memory,  at 
Guilford,  Connecticut,  which  was  designed  gratuitously  by 
Douglas  Smythe,  of  New  York.  It  is  of  Rhode-Island  granite, 
nearly  eighteen  feet  high,  and  was  made  by  John  Ritter  & 
Son,  of  New  Haven.  Upon  the  front  tablet  is  the  simple 
inscription,  in  bas-relief,  "FiTZ-GREENE  HALLECK,  1790- 
1867,"  and  upon  the  cornice  of  the  pedestal  the  following 
lines  from  his  poem  of  "  Marco  Bozzaris  :  " 

"  One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names 
That  were  not  born  to  die." 

Above  the  inscription  is  a  monogram  consisting  of  the  Greek 
letters  Alpha  and  Omega — the  beginning  and  end — and  near 
the  foot  of  the  obelisk  an  oak-branch.  Upon  the  opposite, 
or  rear  tablet,  in  bas-relief,  is  a  lyre  supported  by  two  burn 
ing  torches.  On  the  east  side  of  the  monument  is  the  in 
scription,  "Nathaniel  E.  Halleck,  1792-1793,"  and  on  the 
west  are  the  words,  "Israel  Halleck,  1754-1839,"  "Mary 
Eliot  Halleck,  1762-1819."  The  obelisk  occupies  a  con 
spicuous  position  near  the  centre  of  the  Alderbrook  Cemetery, 


APPENDIX. 


595 


or,  as  it  is  more  -generally  called,  the  East  Burial-Ground, 
and  stands  in  an  oval  plot,  20x30  feet,  obtained  after  the 
poet's  death,  the  place  of  his  burial  not  being  an  appropriate 
one  for  the  monument.  Around  the  plot  has  been  placed  a 
strong  and  durable  railing  of  iron,  with  granite  posts,  and  a 
path  four  feet  in  width  surrounds  the  poet's  burial-place,  and 
is  separated  from  the  other  grounds  by  a  neat  evergreen 
hedge.  Some  of  the  Melrose-Abbey  ivy,  received  from  the 
hands  of  Sir  Walter.  Scott  by  Irving,  and  which  was  trans 
planted  at  Sunnyside,  where  it  clings  rejoicingly  to  the  walls 
of  his  picturesque  cottage,  is  now  growing  near  Halleck's 
monument,  and  its  bright  dark  leaves  mingle  with  the  green 
turf  that  covers  the  poet's  grave.  The  sum  of  one  hundred 
dollars  has  been  invested  in  the  trustees  of  the  cemetery,  the 
proceeds  of  which  are  to  be  forever  applied  to  keeping  the 
monument,  the  railing,  the  grass,  the  path,  and  the  hedge  that 
surrounds  the  whole,  in  good  order.  I  would  here  return  my 
acknowledgments,  for  their  kind  aid  and  assistance  in  obtain 
ing  the  necessary  subscriptions,  to  Benjamin  H.  Field  and 
Horace  Greeley,  of  New  York,  and  to  General  Henry  W. 
Halleck  and  Horace  H.  Moore,  of  San  Francisco,  who  for 
warded  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  as  free-will  offerings 
from  California  to  the  memorial  of  the  poet.  The  following 
are  the  names  of  the  donors  whose  subscriptions  varied  from 
five  dollars  up  to  fifty :  William  B.  Astor,  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  Charles  W.  Sandford,  Samuel  B.  Ruggles,  J.  Carson 
Brevoort,  T.  W.  C.  Moore,  W.  W.  Baldwin,  William  T. 
Blodgett,  Robert  Bonner,  S.  B.  Chittenden,  Rev.  C.  W. 
Everest,  Benj.  H.  Field,  Christian  Roselius,  Wm.  L.  An 
drews,  James  T.  Brady,  James  Gordon  Bennett,  George  W. 
Cass,  Henry  Clews,  George  W.  Childs,  Frederic  De  Peyster, 
Charles  A.  Peabody,  W.  M.  Vermilye,  Thurlow  Weed,  J.  E. 
Williams,  Henry  H.  Elliott,  Robert  G.  L.  De  Peyster, 
George  Griswold,  John  Caswell,  Wm.  G.  Fargo,  A.  T. 
Mosher,  James  H.  Hackett,  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  Charles 
P.  Clinch,  Charles  Sumner,  James  Grant  Wilson,  Wm.  Cullen 


596  APPENDIX. 

Bryant,  Charles  O'Conor,  Hamilton  Fish,  John  M.  Car- 
nochan,  Charles. P.  Daly,  John  M.  Bixby,  A.  B.  Durand, 
Horace  Greeley,  Frank  Moore,  James  Lawson,  Samuel 
Ward,  James  Lenox,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Gouverneur  Kemble, 
Samuel  J.  Tilden,  George  Folsom,  Charles  W.  Elliott,  Charles 
G.  Landon,  James  F.  De  Peyster,  David  Stewart,  Wm.  H. 
Macy,  Wm.  B.  Ogden,  C.  F.  Southmayd,  Mrs.  A.  C.  L.  Botta, 
Mrs.  E.  H.  Colt,  Mrs.  C.  A.  Davis,  Mrs.  N.  S.  Holbrook, 
Mrs.  F.  A.  Kemble,  S.  L.  M.  Barlow,  Lloyd  Aspinwall, 
Henry  Hale  Ward,  Isaac  N.  Phelps,  John  D.  Jones,  Edwin 
Forrest,  John  G.  Whittier,  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  Benjamin  R. 
Winthrop,  Cortlandt  M.  P.  Field,  Samuel  D.  Babcock. 

CALIFORNIA  SUBSCRIBERS.  —  Selim  E.  WToodworth,  E. 
Casserly,  Henry  W.  Halleck,  F.  Billings,  A.  C.  Peachy,  John 
Parrott,  Robert  Allen,  H.  H.  Bancroft  &  Co.,  A.  Roman  & 
Co.,  Robert  C.  Rogers,  Frank  Soule,  Delos  Lake,  H.  H. 
Byrne,  H.  B.  Williams,  Winans  &  Belknap,  J.  A.  Donahoe. 

A  formal  dedication  of  the  Halleck  monument  will  be  held 
at  the  Alderbrook  Cemetery,  Guilford,  on  July  8,  1869,  the 
next  anniversary  of  the  poet's  birthday,  when  an  address  will 
be  delivered,  a  poem  written  for  the  occasion  will  be  read, 
and  other  appropriate  exercises  will  take  place. 

Another  most  beautiful  and  fitting  tribute  is  to  be  paid  to 
the  memory  of  the  Philhellene,  by  the  erection,  in  the  Central 
Park,  New  York,  of  a  full-length  bronze  statue  of  the  poet, 
for  which  purpose  it  is  proposed  to  raise  the  sum  of  twelve 
thousand  dollars.  Persons  desiring  to  contribute  to  this  ob 
ject,  may  forward  their  subscriptions  to  any  member  of  the 
following  committee,  who  have  the  matter  in  charge :  Wil 
liam  C.  Bryant,  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  Hamilton  Fish,  Samuel 
B.  Ruggles,  William  Kemble,  William  H.  Appleton,  John 
H.  Gourlie,  Benjamin  H.  Field,  William  T.  Blodgett,  Evart 
A.  Duyckinck,  James  Grant  Wilson,  Andrew  H.  Green. 


INDEX. 


Abbotsford,  255. 

Abernethy,  Dr.  John,  556. 

Academy  of  Music,  582. 

Acropolis  Rock,  36. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  158,  271,  392. 

Addison,  Joseph,  225,  263,  272,  557. 

Addison' s  Spectator,  64. 

Admirable  Croaker,  338. 

Ainslie,  Hew,  503. 

Albany  Evening  Journal,  552. 

Albi  Cottage,  374,  378,  380. 

Alderbrook  Cemetery,  574,  580,  594. 

Allen,  Lieutenant  W.  H.,  285. 

Alloway  Kirk,  276,  277,  279,  446. 

Alnwick  Castle,  269,  270,  272,  273, 

281,  319,  333- 
Amalia,  Queen,  303. 
American  Commerce,  285. 
American  Flag,  The,  225,  332. 
American  Libraries,  23. 
American  Literature,  262,  263. 
American  Medical  Biography,  30. 
American  Poets,  275. 
American  Poetry,  272. 
Andre,  Major  John,  20. 
Andrews,  William  Loring,  240,  591. 
A  Poet's  Daughter,  349. 
Appletons'  Annual  Cyclopaedia,  577. 
Appleton,  William  H.,  497,  596. 
Appleton  &  Company,  465,  591. 
Aquebogue,  15,  17. 
Argyle,  Marquis  of,  221. 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  35,  529. 
Arran,  Earl  of,  196. 
Astor  House,  438,  502,  503,  511. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,   104,"  352,  353, 

358,  393.  427,  444>  46o,  468,  470, 

476-478,  483,  540. 


Astor  Library,  23,  428,  476,  591. 
Astor,  William  B.,  482,  595,  596. 
Athenaeum  Club,  549. 
Athens,  36,  295. 
Atlantic  Cable,  159. 
Audubon,  J.  J.,  563. 
Auld,  David,  280,  447. 
Authors'  Club,  400. 
Ayr,  Town  of,  276,  280. 

B. 

Baker,  Lieutenant  James,  133. 

Ballantyne,  James,  255. 

Ballantyne,  John,  163. 

Ballston  Springs,  165. 

Bancroft,  George,  489. 

Barker,  Jacob,  101,  104,  105,  109, 
114,  129,  184,  187,  212,  218,  222, 
251,  284,  290,  305,  313,  335,  336, 
337,  344,  SOL 

Barker,  Mrs.  Jacob,  336. 

Barker,  Robert,  283. 

Barker,  Thomas,  128,  130,  165. 

Barnes,  John,  347. 

Barnes,  Mrs.  John,  347. 

Bastile,  Key  of,  173. 

Battle  of  Bladensburg,  171. 

Battery,  New  York,  103,  104,  146. 

Bayard,  Chevalier,  152. 

Bayard,  J.  A.,  158. 

Bay  Psalm  Book,  26. 

Beauclerk,  Topham,  571. 

Beaumont  &  Fletcher,  244. 

Beckford,  William,  187. 

Beecher,  Dr.  Lyman,  52,  56. 

Beekman  House,  20. 

Begg,  Isabella  Burns,  275,  302. 

Bellows,  Dr.  H.  W.,  535. 

Bennet,  Dr.  L.  T.,  574,  578,  591,  594- 


598 

Berault,  Madame,  170. 

Berkeley,  Bishop,  31. 

Berkeley,  Earl  of,  369. 

Beranger,  Pierre,  304,  341. 

Betts,  Miss  Laura,  124. 

Bibby,  Gouverneur  S.,  145,  150. 

Bigelow,  John,  521. 

Billingsgate  McSwell,  313. 

Bismarck,  Count,  405. 

Bixby's  Hotel,  484,  486. 

Blarney  Castle,  256. 

Blind  Jamie,  557. 

Bloomingdale,  141,  230,  231,  420. 

Bonaparte,  Joseph,  282,  480,  519. 

Bonaparte,  Pauline,  415. 

Bonnie  Doon,  275,  278. 

Botta,  Mrs.  Vincenzo,  471,  534,  596. 

Boteler,  Lord,  38. 

Bozzaris,  Constantine,  303. 

Bozzaris,  Cresto,  304. 

Bozzaris,  Demetrius,  303. 

Bozzaris,  Marco,  291-293,  295-297, 
299,  300-304,  334,  386,  389,  515. 

Bozzaris,  Rosa,  291,  303. 

Brady's  Gallery,  558. 

Bradford  Club,  220,  222,  501. 

Brainard,  J.  G.  C.,  306,  307,  561. 

Bread-and-Cheese  Lunch,  400. 

Bremer,  Fredrika,  287. 

Brevoort,  Henry,  145,  147,  233,  236. 

Brig  O'Doon,  278. 

Bristed,  Charles  Astor,  355. 

Broadway  Journal,  431. 

Broadway  Theatre,  511. 

Bronson,  Miss,  249. 

Brooks,  James  G.,  162,  330,  346. 

Brougham,  John,  452. 

Brown,  Henry  K.,  497. 

Brown,  Mysterious,  591. 

Browning,  Mrs.  E.  B.,  524. 

•Brown,  Rev.  Solyman,  537. 

Bruce,  Dr.  Archibald,  166,  196,  215. 

Bruce,  Robert,  196. 

Bruce,  William  W.,  504,  505. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  18,  72,  101, 
115,  162,  324,  327,  330,  371,  388, 
389»  394,  397,  4io,  417,  42!,  439, 
442,  497-499,  523,  575,  573,  582, 
596. 

Buchanan,  James,  482. 

Buchanan,  Mrs.,  160,  165. 

Bucktail  Bards,  499. 

Bull's  Ferry,  412. 

Bull's  Ferry  Hill,  417. 

Burke,  Edmund,  22,  103. 

Burnt  Mill  Point,  166. 

Burr,  Aaron,  347. 

Burton,  William  E.,  452,  481. 


INDEX. 


Burns's  Birthplace,  275,  276,  279. 
Burns,  Robert,  64,  245,  260,  269,  274- 

278,  280,  281,  342,  447,  502. 
Bushwhacker,  Dr.,  262. 
Butler,  George  B.,  497. 
Butler,  Pierce,  365. 
Byron,  Lord,  71,  189,  231,  237,  239, 

251,  264,  305,  351,  436,  571. 

C. 

Cafe  de  Foy,  547. 
Calhoun,  John  C.,  352. 
California  Subscribers,  595,  596. 
Cambreleng,  Stephen,  150. 
Cambridge  University,  37. 
Campbell,  Ellen  A.  F.,  373-375,  377, 

382,  384,  387,  390. 
Campbell,  Thomas,  51,  52,  162,  163, 

174,  245,  246,  251,  264,  348,  349, 

389»  444- 

Canal  Street,  115. 
Canale,  Prof.   George  C.,  295,  299, 

5i7,  588. 

Canfield,  Dr.,  574. 
Caraiscos,  300-302. 
Carazza,  General,  303. 
Carleton  House,  438. 
Carlisle,  Earl  of,  467,  480. 
Carnochan,  Dr.  John  M.,  566. 
Central  Park,  596. 
Century  Club,  499. 
Cezanne,  Lydia,  65,  114,  140. 
Chalmers,  Dr.  Thomas,  452. 
Channing,  William  E.,  162,  560. 
Chapman,  John  G.,  397. 
Charles  the  First,  30. 
Charles  the  Second,  16,  571. 
Charter  House,  London,  265. 
Chatham,  Lord,  551. 
Chatterton,  Thomas,  443. 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  557. 
Chemanan,  Monsieur,  138,  139. 
Cheviot  Hills,  272. 
Chevy  Chase,  .225,  272. 
Chicago  Indians,  507. 
Cholera, .The,  355-357- 
Christ  Church,  Guilford,  431. 
Church  du  St.  Esprit,  no. 
Churchill,  Charles,  256. 
City  Hotel,  159,  397,  403,  412,  515. 
Clarke,  McDonald,  404,  430,  466. 
Clark,  Louis  Gaylord,  346,  438,  452, 

500,  501. 

Clark,  Willis  G.,  346. 
Clarence,  Duke  of,  20,  258. 
Clason,  Isaac  Starr,  234,  235,  307. 
Clay,  Henry,  158,  352. 
Clinch,  Charles  P.,  167,  228,  242,  350. 


INDEX. 


599 


Clinton  De  Witt,  103,  240. 
Clinton,  Governor  George,  145,  155. 
Club  Room,  236,  238,  239. 
Cogswell,  Dr.  Joseph  G.,  273,  274. 
Colden,  Cadwallader  D.,  147. 
Coleman,  William,  207,  210,  216-219, 

225,  242,  334,  335. 
Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  71,  264, 

5i6,  554. 

Colman,  George,  522. 
Colton,  Calvin,  400. 
Columbia  College,  405. 
Commercial  Advertiser,  549,  550. 
Connecticut  Poets,  561. 
Connecticut,  39,  561. 
Conspiracy  Trials,  313. 
Cooke,   George   Frederick,  62,  112, 

306,  401,  402,  511. 
Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  101,  162,  168, 

251,  282,  288,  338,  400,  402,  441, 

489,  563,  575- 
Cooper  Monument,  490. 
Cooper,  Thomas  A.,  62,  226,  481. 
Cooper,  Mrs.  T.  A.,  226. 
Corvvin,  Edwin  B.,  468. 
Costar,  Colonel,  452. 
Cowley,  Abraham,  71,  557. 
Cozzens,  Frederick  S.,  21,  219,  262, 

263»  497.  575- 

Culprit  Fay,  The,  168,  332. 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  260.  •     . 

Curtis,  George  William,  575. 
Cushman,  Miss,  467,  481. 
Croaker,  Junior,  216,  217. 
Croaker  &  Co.,  216,  338. 
Croakers,  The,  62,  210,  215-219,  224, 

232,  244,  246,  325,  390,  443. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  16,  313. 
Cronkhite,  J.  P.,  497. 
Cruger,  Henry,  103. 

D. 

Dalgetty,  Captain  Dugald,  221. 

Damon  and  Pythias,'  215. 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  72,  162,  346,  442, 

448,  542,  578. 

D'Angely,  General  St.  Jean,  519,  570. 
Dappnte,  Lorenzo,  281,  282,  361,  406. 
Davis,  Charles  Augustus,  276,  400, 

401,  437,  439,  441,  446,  448,  494, 

495,  506,  507,  568. 
Davis,  Mrs.  C.  A.,  507. 
Davis,  William,  165,  251. 
Davenport,  Rev.  John,  14. 
Davy,  Lady,  273. 
Day,  Miss  Anne  B.,  423. 
Day,  Mrs.  Dr.,  422. 
Dearborn,  George,  352,  391. 


Decatur,  Commodore,  504. 

Delafield,  Henry,  150,  437. 

Delafield,  Dr.  Edward,  150. 

De  Lancey,  Thomas  J.,  158. 

De  Latour,  A.,  361. 

Depeyster,  Robert  G.  L.,  565,  596. 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  554. 

Denning,  Miss,  281. 

De  Stael,  Madame,  253. 

Dickens,  Charles,  434,  436-441. 

Digby,  Admiral,  20. 

Dinner-Party,  The,  247. 

Disbrow,  Samuel,  38,  39. 

Dixon,  Mrs.  James,  261. 

Desnouettes,  Lefevre,  250,  519. 

DeKay,  Commodore  George  C.,  412. 

DeKay,  Mrs.  George  C.,  246,  591. 

DeKay,  Miss,  246. 

De  Kay,  Dr.  James  E.,  114,  142, 162, 

167,   169,  170,  195,  197,  212,  228, 

23°,  233,  242,  246,  249,  251,  344, 

356,  399.,  400. 
Doane,  Bishop,  452. 
Domestic  Happiness,  341. 
Don  Giovanni,  282. 
Doonbrae  Cottage,  447. 
Drake,  Dr.  Joseph  Rodman,  72, 162— 

169,  183-185,    191,    193-195,   197, 

212,    2I5—22O,    224,     228,    234,    241, 
242,    244-246,     327,    332,     389,     392, 

412,  426,  427,  429,    435,  443,  448, 

563,  580. 
Drake,   Mrs.  J.  R.,  185,   197,  212, 

241,  242,  247,  249. 
Drury  Lane  Theatre,  366. 
Dryden,  John,  305,  485. 
Duer,  John,  399-401. 
Duer,  William,  400,  418. 
Dunning,  Adrian  H.,  417,  419. 
Dunning,  Mrs.  A.  H.,  419,  422,425! 
Durand,  A.  B.,  478,  497,  573. 
Dutchess  County,  18. 
Duyckinck,  E.  A.,  168,  416,  463,  575, 

59_6. 

Dwight,  Theodore,  334. 
D  wight,  S.  E.,  464,  465. 

E. 

East  Burial-Grqund,  595. 
Eaton,  Theophilus,  14. 
Eckford,  Henry,  167,  197,  247,  313. 
Edmonds,  F.  W.,  478,  497. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  464. 
Eldon,  Lord,  546. 
Eliot,  Abiel,  32,  33. 
Eliot,  Charles,  36,  574. 
Eliot,  George  A.,  184,  186,  290. 
Eliot,  Jared,  D.D.,  30,  32. 


6oo 


INDEX. 


Eliot,  John,  D.  D.,  23,  26,  27,  34,  36. 

Eliot,  Joseph,  D.  D.,  28-30,  32,  36. 

Eliot,  Mrs.  Joseph,  30. 

Eliot,  Nathaniel,  33. 

Eliot,  William,  33. 

Ellet,  Mrs.  E.  F.,  358,  430. 

Ellet,  Professor,  358. 

Elliot,  Abigail,  143. 

Elliot,  Andrew,  57,  61. 

Elliot,  Henry  H.,  477. 

Elliot,  Horace  N.,  114,  132, 143,  160. 

Elliott,  Charles  Loring,  452,  478,  591. 

Enard,  Monsieur,  56. 

England,  to  the  Critics  of,  256. 

English  Literature,  263. 

Embury,  Daniel,  290,  477. 

Epaminondas,  291. 

Estelle,  Mademoiselle,  303. 

Eugenie,  Empress,  404. 

European  Society,  372. 

Evening  Post,   210,   216,   217,   220, 

225,  242,  329,  332,  335,  338,  442. 
Everett,  David,  42. 
Everett,  Edward,  23,  42,  441. 
Everest,  Rev.  C.  W.,  574. 
Exchange  Bank,  468. 

F. 

Fairlie,  Julia,  226. 
Fairlie,  Louisa,  226,  227. 
Fairlie,  Major,  226. 
Fair  Maid  of  Iowa,  346. 
Falstaff,  Sir  John,  516. 
Fanny,  230,  231,  236,  238,  240. 
"  Fanny  Continued,"  234. 
Fay,  Theodore  S.,  400. 
Felton,  President  C.  C.,  439. 
Fenwick,  Governor  George,  37. 
Field,  Benjamin  H.,  564,  572,  595. 
Field,  David  Dudley,  497. 
Field  of  the  Grounded  Arms,  350. 
Field,  Hickson  W.,  150. 
Fish,  Hamilton,  240,  596. 
Fish,  Nicholas,  512. 
Floy  Van  Cortlandt,  564,  573. 
Foote,  Miss  Catherine,  no,  in,  114. 
Foote,  George  A.,  21,  58,  114,  131, 

143,  183,  247. 
Foote,  John  P.,  52. 
Foote,  Samuel  E.,  52. 
Forbes,  Philip  J.,  338. 
Forrest,  Edwin,  469. 
Fort  Gansevoort,  145. 
Fort  Lee,  411,  412,  414,  417, 418,  420, 

422,  424,  482,  500. 
Forty  Years  of  American  Life,  460. 
Fowler,  Abraham  S.,  157,  247. 
Fowler,  William  C.,  287,  290. 


Fox,  Charles  James,  547,  567. 
Francis,  Dr.  John  W.,  251,  262,  400. 
Francis,  Rev.  Convers,  D.  D.,  27. 
Francis,  Sir  Philip,  549,  552,  553. 
Francis  the  First,  365. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  31. 
Franklin,  Miss  Mary,  193. 
Franklin,  Walter,  191. 
Fredericksburg,  550. 
Front  Royal,  35. 
Fulton,  Robert,  103,  513. 

G. 

Gaelic  Poetry,  503. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  158,  172. 

Gallatin,  Mrs.  Albert,  172. 

Garcia  Troupe,  282. 

Garrick,  David,  261,  306,  559. 

Garrick,  Mrs.  David,  261. 

Genet,  Citizen,  155. 

George  the  First,  259. 

George  the  Third,  404. 

George  the  Fourth,  324,  506,  553. 

Gerard,  James  W.,  150. 

Gifford,  James  N.,  136,  142. 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  53,  216,  293,  443. 

Goodrich,  S.  C.,  306,  307,  335. 

Goose  Creek,  170. 

Gourlie,  John  H.,  497,  596. 

Governor's  Island,  136. 

Gowans,  William,  432,  473. 

Grace  Church,  New  York,  476,  521. 

Grade,  Archibald,  104. 

Gracie,  William,  401. 

Graham's  Magazine,  441. 

Grant,  Mrs.  Anne,  143. 

Grant,  General  U.  S.,  530. 

Gray,  Henry  Peters,  497,  500. 

Gray,  Thomas,  322,  569. 

Grays,  The   Iron,  64,  145-148,  150, 

Grecian  Tribute  to  the  Poet,  576. 

Greek  Translations,  584,  588. 

Greeley,  Horace,  535,  595. 

Griswold,  R.  W.,  168,  442,  444. 

Grouchy,  Marshal,  519. 

Grub-street  Man,  294. 

Guilford,  22,  28,  32,  33,  36,  39,  56, 
72,  114,  142,  159, 162, 186,  283,  284, 
33°,  337,  372>  426,  431,  479,  482, 
538>  572,  577,  58°- 

Guilford  District  School,  41. 

Guilford  Library,  53. 

Gwynn,  Nell,  571. 

H. 

Hackett,  James  H.,  467,  494,  596. 
H  agger  ty,  Ogden,  497. 


INDEX. 


601 


Halak,  Mount,  13. 

Hall,  A.  Oakey,  325,  326. 

Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,  ancestry,  13 ; 
Birth,  40;  Accident,  41 ;  at  School, 
42;  Juvenile  Verses,  43;  Boyhood, 
51;  Good  Scholar,  52;  LoveofRead- 
inS>  53  >  Lines  to  his  Sister,  54 ; 
becomes  a  Clerk,  57;  Early  Verses, 
59 ;  Visits  New  York,  61 ;  First 
Publication  of  Verses,  64;  joins 
the  Militia,  64;  Poetical  Epistle, 
65  ;  Juvenile  Poems,  71 ;  Arrival 
in  New  York,  101;  enters  Jacob 
Barker's  Office,  102;  Reminis 
cences  of  New  York  in  1811,  103; 
Habits,  no;  at  the  Theatres,  112; 
Love  of  Nature,  114;  his  Boarding- 
house,  115;  advanced  by  Mr. 
Barker,  122;  visits  Guilford,  125; 
Miniature  Portrait,  126;  returns  to 
New  York,  127  ;  goes  in  Business, 
128  ;  takes  Apartments,  132  ; 
Sleighing  Parties,  141  ;  sends 
Books  to  his  Sister,  143;  Poem 
appears  in  Holt's  Columbian,  144 ; 
joins  Iron  Grays,  145;  composes 
Ode,  146;  describes  Military  Ex 
periences,  151  ;  composes  Several 
Poems,  155;  visits  Boston,  159; 
in  New  Haven,  160 ;  describes  Au 
thors,  162  ;  Excursion  with  Drake, 
163 ;  at  Colonel  Russell's,  165 ; 
goes  Fishing,  166;'  at  Mrs.  Stuy- 
vesant's,  167;  Frolics  with  Drake, 
168 ;  goes  to  Virginia,  169 ;  in 
Washington,  171 ;  describes  Mrs. 
Madison,  172;  returns  to  New 
York,  175;  changes  his  Lodgings, 
175;  visits  North  Carolina,  176; 
describes  the  People,  177;  Return, 
183 ;  attends  Drake's  Wedding, 
184 ;  composes  Songs  for  Miss 
McCall,  185;  at  Lake  George, 
1 88;  attacked  with  Rheumatism, 
189 ;  describes  LangstafF,  196 : 
receives  Epistles  from  Drake,  197 ; 
visits  Guilford,  207;  Illness,  210; 
Origin  of  the  Croakers,  215;  calls 
on  Coleman,  217;  becomes  famous, 
218;  Allusions  to  Croakers,  220; 
writing  Sermons,  226 ;  Story  of 
Slidell,  227;  comments  on  Schiller, 
229;  at  Bloomingdale,  230;  "Fan 
ny,"  231;  "Country  Seat,"  231; 
Incident  2t  Albany,  233  ;  adds 
Canto  to  Fanny,  234 ;  Illness,  235 ; 
visits  Canada,  241 ;  mourns  Death 
of  Drake,  241;  composes  Monody, 

26 


242 ;  French  Translation,  243 ; 
going  to  Peru,  247;  visits  Wy 
oming,  248;  composes  Lines  on 
Wyoming,  248 ;  attends  DeKay's 
Wedding,  249;  in  Canada,  249; 
visits  Guilford,  250 ;  European 
Tour,  251 ;  Arrival  in  Liverpool, 
252  ;  travels  in  England,  252  ; 
meets  Talleyrand,  253;  in  Ger 
many,  253 ;  Dinner  at  Blackwood's, 
255;  visits  Ireland  and  Wales,  256; 
Reply  to  British  Critics,  257 ;  sees 
Dukes  of  Clarence  and  Wellington, 
258 ;  Halleck  on  Scotland,  259 ; 
Allusion  to  his  Poetry,  260;  in 
London,  260;  on  American  Lit 
erature,  262;  sees  Coleridge,  264; 
introduced  to  Hobhouse,  264  ; 
records  of  European  Tour,  265; 
composes  Alnwick  Castle,  269 ; 
Rogers'  Opinion  of  his  Poetry,  274 ; 
visits  Burns's  Birthplace,  274  ; 
composes  Lines  to  Burns,  275 ; 
cheered  at  a  Burns  Festival,  281 ; 
Arrival  in  New  York,  283 ;  Lines  to 
Lieutenant  Allen,  285 ;  meets  Per- 
cival,  286;  Marco  Bozzaris,  290; 
Amusing  Letter  concerning  his 
chef  d'oeuvre,  293 ;  Poems  written 
in  1823,  304;  at  Weddings,  305; 
Tribute  to  Halleck,  307 ;  writes 
Billingsgate  McSwell,  313;  Publi 
cation  of  Poems,  319 ;  presents  Cop 
ies  to  Ladies,  321 ;  composes  Red 
Jacket,  322 ;  Lines  to  the  Record 
er,  324  ;  Beautiful  Compliment, 
329 ;  Sketch  of  Halleck,  330 ; 
Death  of  his  Friend  Coleman,  334 ; 
leaves  Jacob  Barker,  335 ;  the 
Last  Croaker,  338 ;  New-England 
Magazine  on  Halleck,  340 ;  editing 
a  Magazine,  344 ;  out  of  Health, 
345;  Tribute  to  the  Poet,  346; 
writes  Theatrical  Address,  347 ; 
Lines  to  a  Poet's  Daughter,  349 ; 
Field  of  the  Grounded  Arms,  350 ; 
edits  Byron's  Works,  352  ;  Visits 
Washington,  353;  enters  Astor's 
Office,  354 ;  resides  at  Astoria, 
354 ;  describes  Ravages  of  Chole 
ra,  357 ;  Lines  to  Mrs.  Ellet,  358  ; 
meets  Fanny  Kemble,  359 ;  writes 
Article  on  Clinton,  360;  Transla 
tion  from  Italian,  362;  Kemble 
Anecdotes,  366 ;  describes  Fanny 
Kemble,  368;  a  Love- Affair,  373; 
To  Ellen,  375;  receives  Love-Let- 
ters,  377;  alludes  to  Ellen  Camp- 


602 


INDEX. 


bell,  391;  New  Edition  ot  Poems, 
392 ;  Portrait  and  Sketch  by  Bry 
ant,  394;  Description  of  Halleck, 
393;  Contributions  solicited,  396; 
attends  Booksellers'  Dinner,  397; 
Compliments  from  Rogers,  398; 
Vice- President  Authors'  Club,  400; 
Member  Bread-and-Cheese  Lunch, 
400 ;  his  Conversation,  402 ;  meets 
Napoleon  III.,  404;  attends  Da- 

Eonte's  Funeral,  405 ;  Translations 
•om  French  and  German,  407; 
New  Editions  of  Poems,  409 ;  Se 
lections  from  British  Poets,  410; 
Reynolds's  Alehouse,  411;  visits 
Fort  Lee,  411;  Anecdotes,  415; 
Letters  about  Fort  Lee,  418;  a 
Poet's  Trials,  426;  Halleck' s  Lib 
erality,  429 ;  Kindness  to  Authors, 
430;  giving  $100  to  a  Church, 
431;  at  a  Catholic  Church,  433; 
meets  Charles  Dickens,  434 ;  Lines 
to  Mrs.  Rush,  435  ;  describes  Dick 
ens  Dinner,  437;  Portrait  in  Gra 
ham's  Magazine,  441;  contribut 
ing  to  the  Press,  443 ;  a  Beautiful 
Song,  444 ;  Poe  on  Halleck,  448 ; 
a  Valentine,  450;  Death  of  his 
Friend  Inman,  451;  The  Poet's 
Resorts,  452;  Halleck  in  Society, 
.455;  Description  of  the  Poet,  460; 
Reminiscences  of  Halleck,  464; 
receives  Valentines,  471;  Opinion 
of  Compliments,  473 ;  Bequest  from 
J.  J.  Astor,  476 ;  Trustee  Astor  Li 
brary,  476 ;  indorsing  Astor's  Note, 
478  :  Illustrated  Edition  of  Poems, 
478 ;  retires  to  Guilford,  478 ;  Dis 
tinguished  Friends,  480 ;  an  Eng 
lish  Critique,  482;  at  Bixby's  Ho 
tel,  484 ;  among  the  Germans,  487  ; 
Manner  of  composing,  490 ;  Lines 
from  Mrs.  Sigourney,  492;  a  Pro 
posed  Statue,  494;  Century  Club 
Dinner,  496 ;  Tribute  to  Clark,  500 ; 
Fort  Lee,  500;  his  Last  Portrait, 
501 ;  a  Breakfast  Party,  502 ;  re 
ceives  Rose-buds  from  Burns's  Sis 
ter,  502  ;  leaving  Thackeray's  Lec 
ture,  506;  writes  Amusing  Letter 
to  the  Author,  507 ;  at  the  Broad 
way  Theatre,  511;  visits  Church 
yards,  512;  New  Edition  of  Poems, 
514 ;  his  Visits  to  New  York,  515 ; 
a  Party  at  Villegrand's,  519 ;  Illness 
in  New  York,  521 ;  his  Poems 
Translated,  523 ;  Picture  of  Irving, 
Halleck,  etc.,  528;  Opinion  of  An 


drew  Jackson,  529;  writes  "Young 
America,"  532;  Reminiscences  of 
Halleck,  538;  a  Practical  Chris 
tian,  541 ;  his  Carelessness  of  Au 
thorship,  545 ;  Visits  to  New  York, 
546 ;  Sparkling  Commensalia,  547 ; 
Authorship  of  Junius  Letters,  549 ; 
his  Table-Talk,  554 ;  Marvellous 
Memory,  556 ;  the  Poet's  Portraits, 
558 ;  Halleck  at  Home,  561 ;  Last 
Verses,  564;  a  Political  Letter, 
565 ;  his  Politeness,  567 ;  Illness 
in  New  York,  568 ;  Return  to  Guil- 
ford,  572;  Last  Sickness,  573; 
Death  and  Burial,  574 ;  Tribute  to 
his  Memory,  575  ;  Religious  Belief, 
578;  the  Poet's  Monument,  579; 
Sale  of  his  Library,  580 ;  New  Edi 
tion  of  Poems,  581 ;  Portraits,  591 ; 
Statue  in  Central  Park,  596. 

Halleck,  Gen.  Henry  W.,  17,  35,  595. 

Halleck,  Israel,  19-21,  35,  56,  58, 
124,  247,  284,  594. 

Halleck,  Mrs.  Israel,  22,  28,  33,  169. 

Halleck,  Miss  Maria,  41,  54,  104, 115, 
127,  130,  143,  150,  159,  162,  183, 
185,  188,  189,  193,  207,  218,  231, 
236,  242,  247,  250,  283,  288,  304, 
337,  344,  355,  356»  359,  372»  482» 

Halleck,  Nathaniel  E.,  594. 
Halleck  &  Barker,  128,  130. 
Hallock,  Abigail,  18. 
Hallock,  Barnabas,  407. 
Hallock,  Benjamin  Laurens,  15. 
Hallock,  Gerard,  35. 
Hallock,  Edward,  34. 
Hallock,  Rev.  Jeremiah,  35. 
Hallock,  John,  16-18. 
Hallock,  Margaret,  16. 
Hallock,  Rev.  Moses,  35. 
Hallock,  Peter,  14,  16-18,  34. 
Hallock,  Thomas,  16,  17. 
Hallock,  William,  16. 
Hallock's  Beach,  14. 
Hallqck's  Neck,  14. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  160,  334,  335. 
Hamilton,  Mrs.  A.,  512. 
Hamilton,  Miss,  305. 
Hammond,  the  Historian,  28. 
Hanover  Square,  20. 
Harlakenden,  Mabel,  30. 
Harper's  Magazine,  491. 
Harper  &  Brothers,  386,  409,  410. 
Harvard  College,  23,  27,  28,  439. 
Harvey,  Jacob,  481. 
Hawks,  Dr.  Francis  L.,  561. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  441,  554. 


INDEX. 


603 


Haynes,  Governor  John,  30. 

Hazard,  Samuel,  305. 

Hazlitt,  William,  264. 

Herbert,  William  Henry,  453. 

Hicks,  Isaac,  109. 

Hicks,  Thomas,  391,  452,  501,  502. 

Higginson,  Rev.  John,  38,  39. 

Hill,  George,  190,  369,  490,  561. 

Hill,  Titus,  141. 

Hillhouse,  James  A.,  162,  561. 

Hillhouse,  Mrs.,  357. 

Hoadley,  Rev.  John,  38. 

Hobart,  Bishop,  452. 

Hobhouse,  Mr.,  264. 

Hoffman,  Charles  F.,  400,  454. 

Hoffman,  Ogden,  504. 

Hogbin,  Epistle  to,  338,  339. 

Hogg,  James,  161,  187,  255. 

Holbrook,  E.,  481. 

Holland  House,  547. 

Home  Journal,  536. 

Hone,  Philip,  400. 

Hood,  Thomas,  485.^ 

Horace  in  Cincinnati,  309. 

Horace  in  London,  143. 

Horace  in  New  York,  234,  307. 

Hosack,  Dr.  David,  251,  481. 

Hotspur  and  Catherine,  271. 

Hottentot  Venus,  233. 

House  of  Representatives,  271,  272. 

Howell,  Mrs.,  14. 

Howell,  Sylvester,  15. 

Hugo,  Victor,  407. 

Hunt,  Leigh,  187,  264. 

Hunt's  Point,  167,  169. 


II  Barbiere  de  Seviglia,  282. 

India  House,  479. 

Indian  Bible,  Eliot's,  23,  24. 

Inman,  Henry,  397,  441,  451,  452, 
454,  4?8,  59i- 

Inman,  John,  400. 

International  Magazine,  489. 

Ireland,  Joseph  N.,  347. 

Irving,  Washington,  64,  101,  103, 
147,  162,  232,  234,  262,  263,  284, 
33°,  353.  391,  397-4°°,  4T4,  4T7, 
437,  439,  44i,  460,  481,  49i,  563, 
5.75,  58o,  582. 

Irving,  lierre  M.,  354. 


Jackson,  Andrew,  159,  352,  412,  415- 
Jamison,  Mrs.,  480. 
Jarvis,  John  Wesley,  452,  591. 
Jay,  John,  335,  512. 


Jefferson,  Thomas,  155,  237,  512. 

Johnson,  Miss,  281. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  52,  182,  261,  443, 

Jones',    William   Alfred,    511,    538, 

542- 

Jones's  Woods,  115. 
Jonson,  Ben,  416. 
Journal  of  Commerce,  499. 
Judah,  S.  B.  H.,  309. 
Junius,  219,  220,  550,  551. 

K. 

Kean,  Charles,  261,  306,  481,  511. 
Kean,  Edmund,  261,  306,  481,  511. 
Kearney,  General  Philip,  513. 
Keese,  Richard,  19. 
Kemble,  Charles,  365-367. 
Kemble,  Mrs.  Charles,  365. 
Kemble,  Mrs.  Fanny,  359,  360,  365, 

366,  368-370,  481. 
Kemble,  John  Philip,  365,  366. 
Kemble,  William,  497,  596. 
Kendall,  Amos,  452. 
Kennedy  House,  103. 
Kensett,  J.  F.,  497. 
Kent,  James,  397,  404. 
Kent,  William,  438. 
Killingworth,  30,  32. 
King,  Charles,  400. 
King,  John  A.,  400. 
King,  Rufus,  335,  512. 
Kirkland,   Mrs.   Caroline  M.,    430, 

441,  450,  478. 

Knickerbocker  Gallery,  500. 
Knickerbocker  Magazine,  450. 


Lady  of  Loretto,  511. 

Lady  of  the  Lake,  293. 

Lafayette,  General,  173,  251,  304. 

Lahrbush,  Captain  Frederick,  261. 

Lake  George,  193. 

Lallemand,  General,  519. 

Lamb,  Charles,  255,  264,  479,  485. 

Landsfeldt,  Countess  of,  419. 

Lane,  Josiah,  497. 

Langstaff,  Dr.  William,  195-197,  2i24 

219,  228,  234. 

Langton,  Samuel  Daly,  347. 
Lass  of  Richmond  Hill,  367. 
Laud,  Bishop,  37. 
Lawrence,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  356. 
Lawrence,  Richard,  390. 
Lawson,  James,  245,  260. 
Layard,  Mr.,  221. 
Leete,  Governor  William,  32,  38. 


6o4 


INDEX. 


Legendary,  The,  351. 
Leggett,  William,  330,  335. 
Leicester,  Lady,  494,  495. 
Le  Nozze  di  Figaro,  282. 
Le  Roy,  Adelaide,  138. 
Le  Roy,  Madame,  138. 
Leupp,  Charles  M.,  484,  497,  499. 
Leutze,  Emmanuel,  478. 
Lewis,  Governor,  233. 
Leyden,  John,  220,  339. 
Libby  Prison,  35. 
Lind,  Jenny,  287. 
Lippincott,  Mrs.,  472. 
Lispenard's  Meadow,  115. 
Livingston,  Brpckholst,  251. 
Livingston,  Miss  Eliza,  281. 
Livingston,  John  R.,  247,  481. 
Livingston,  Peter  R.,  233. 
Livingston,  Van  Brugh,  482. 
Livingston,  Walter,  452. 
London  Society  of  Arts,  30. 
Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  442,  448. 
Louis  the  Fourteenth,  56,  519. 
Love  Lane,  New  York,  187. 
Ludlow,  Dr.  Edward  G.,  400,  503. 
Luttrell,  Mr.,  547. 
Lynch,  Dominick,  282. 

M. 
MacCall,  Miss  Eliza,  166,  184-186, 

207,  247. 
MacCarthy,  Eugene,  134,   140,  160, 

164,  212. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  22,  29,  452. 
Macauley,  George,  419,  421. 
Macready,  William  C.,  481. 
Mclntyre,  Mr.,  401. 
McKean,  John,  515. 
McLane,  Louis,  399. 
McNally,  Linnard,  367,  570. 
McNeven,  Dr.  William,  406. 
Madison,  James,  512. 
Madison,  Mrs.  James,  172. 
Mahony,  Francis,  304. 
Malibran,  Madame,  235,  282,  329. 
Manhattan  Island,  411. 
Manhattanville,  141. 
Marbury,  F.  F.,  497. 
Maroncelli,  Piero,  361,  363,  364. 
Marmont,  Marshal,  547. 
Married  for  Money,  511. 
Martineau,  Miss,  480. 
Martini,  a  Russian,  138,  139. 
Mason,  Mrs.,  the  Actress,  112. 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  38, 

Massachusetts  Indians,  25. 
Mather,  Rev.  Richard,  26. 


Matthews,  Charles,  261,  481,  511. 

Mellen,  Grenville,  400. 

Melrpse  Abbey,  580,  595. 

Menie,  Carlos,  65. 

Mepham,  Rev.  John,  38. 

Merchants'  Exchange,  465. 

Methusalem,  494,  495. 

Miller,  Joe,  292. 

Milton,  John,  230,  313,  443. 

Minto,  Earl  of,  255. 

Missolonghi,  300,  305. 

Mitchell,  Dr.  Samuel  L.,  235. 

Mitchell,  the  Actor,  452. 

Mitford,  Miss,  143,  244,  480. 

Mithridates,  548. 

Mitre,  The,  416. 

Montgomery,  General,  512. 

Monteverde,  Frank,  453. 

Moore,  Bishop,  452. 

Moore,  Horace  H.,  464,  595. 

Moore,  Thomas,  20,  162,  170,  231, 

307,  352,  420,  507. 
Moore,  T.  W.  C.,  506,  591. 
More,  Hannah,  162. 
Moreau,  John  B.,  223. 
Morgan,  Lady,  212. 
Morris,   George   P.,   148,   330,   400, 

430,  441,  444,  468,  563- 
Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  591,  596. 
Mott,  Dr.  Valentine,  291. 
Mount  Pleasant,  373. 
Mount,  Richard  E.,  416,  462. 
Mount  Vernon,  169,  172,  173. 
Munroe  and  Francis,  340. 
Murray,  John,  352. 

N. 

Nairne,  Lady,  569. 
Napoleon  the  First,  250,  461,  519. 
Napoleon  the  Third,  404,  405, 
Nasing,  England,  23. 
National  Academy  of  Design,  414. 
National  Advocate,  216,  442. 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  360. 
Nelson,  Admiral,  261. 
Newcastle-under-Lynn,  265. 
New-Englander,  541. 
New-England  Magazine,  340. 
New-England  Schools,  57. 
New-Haven  Colony,  14,  32* 
New- York  City,  15. 
New-York  Historical   Society,  104. 

512,  575,  591. 
New  York  in  1811,  103. 
New-York  Mercantile  Library,  410. 
New- York    Mirror,    369,    386-388, 

3Q4* 
New- York  Review,  292. 


INDEX. 


New- York  Society,  374,  455. 
New-York  Society  Library,  338. 
Niagara  Falls,  241. 
Nichols,  Dr.  Thomas  L.,  460. 
Nightingale,  Florence,  526. 
Nine  Partners,  18,  19. 
Noah,  M.  M.,  216. 
North  American  Indians,  433. 
North  American  Review,  238. 
North  Carolina  People,  177. 
Northumberland,  Duke  of,  272. 
Norton,  Leah,  61,  62. 
Novelties  Club,  438. 
Nutplains,  52,  58. 

O. 

Old  Dutch  Church,  512. 
"Old  Ebony,"  255. 
Oliff,  the  Actor,  62. 
Oldmixon,  Mrs.,  the  Actress,  112. 
Old  New  York,  262. 
Old  Oaken  Bucket,  349. 
Old  Sugar-House,  512. 
O'Neale,  Lord,  106. 
Ormond,  Duke  of,  554. 
Otho,  King  of  Greece,  303. 
Oxford  University,  37. 

P. 

Palmer,  Aaron  H.,  464,  465. 
Pandora,  The,  295. 
Paradise  on  Earth,  422. 

Park  Theatre,  62,  282,  365,  401,  430. 

Parmelee,  Beulah,  33. 

Paulding,    James  K.,  19,  101,    162, 

371,  397,  44i»  563,  568. 
Peale,  Rembrandt,  247. 
Peconic  Bay,  15. 
Pell,  Alfred,  404. 
Pellico,  Silvio,  361. 
Pembroke,  Lord,  567. 
Pepys,  Mr.  Secretary,  559. 
Percival,  Dr.  James  G.,  72,  286,  330. 
Percy,  Lord,  20. 
Peters.  James,  21. 
Phillips,  Charles,  132. 
Pierce,  Miss,  305. 
Pierpont,  Rev.  John,  72,  330,  561. 
Pierson,  Henry  L.,  497. 
Pike,  Albert,  453. 
Pinckney,  Edward  C.,  330. 
Pindar,  Peter,  210,  271. 
Pindaric  Odes,  332. 
Pintard,  Dr.  John,  104,  332,  512. 
Piozzi,  Madame,  568. 
Pitt,  J.  R.  W.  E.  S.,  142. 
Pitt,  William,  547. 


Placides,  The,  452. 

Poe,  Edgar  A.,  72,  168,  272,  395-397, 

43°.  431,  44J>  442>  448>  5^3- 
Pollok,  Robert,  348. 
Pope,  Alexander,  259,  541. 
Porter,  Miss  Jane,  162. 
Porter,  William  T.,  452,  453. 
Portraits  of  Halleck,  591. 
Poughkeepsie,  19. 
Power,  Tyrone,  467,  481. 
Prayer-Book,  563,  592,  593. 
Prentice,  George  D.,  561,  575. 
Prescott,  William  H.,  235,  239,  441. 
Price,  Stephen,  62,  282,  481. 
Pride,  Colonel,  452. 
Prigioni  of  Pellico,  361. 
Prime,  Nathaniel,  103. 
Putnam,  General  Israel,  299. 
Putnam,  George  P.,  465. 
Putnam's  Magazine,  25. 

Q- 

Quakers,  The  Fighting,  35. 
Quarterly  Repository,  242. 
Quarterly  Review,  256. 

R. 

Randolph,  John,  230,  499,  565. 
Rangabe,  A.  P.,  295,  296,  303,  584. 
Ray's  Proverbs,  310. 
Recorder,  The,  324. 
Redfield,  J.  S.,  491. 
Red  Jacket,  322,  323. 
Rejected  Addresses,  235. 
Revelation,  297,  298. 
Reynolds,  Miss,  414,  415,  417. 
Reynolds,  Wm.,  411-414,  418,  422. 
Rhinelander,  Philip,  145,  356. 
Ricaut,  Captain  Paul,  19. 
Richmond  Hill  Gardens,  347. 
Richmond  Hill  Theatre,  347. 
Riker,  Richard,  325,  326,  329. 
Robinson,  Dr.  Edward,  14. 
Rogers,  Nathaniel,  591. 
Rogers,  Samuel,   162,  264,  273,  274, 

291*  379,  398,  3.99- 
Romayne,  Dr.  Nicholas,  too,  215. 
Rome,  City  of,  259. 
Roosevelt,  Judge  J.  J.,  484. 
Roosevelt,  Mrs.  J.  J.,  407. 
Rouquette,  Rev.  Adrian,  243. 
Ruggles,  Rev.  Thomas,  28,  32. 
Rush,  Mrs.  John,  280,  281,  305,  393, 

434,  436,  440,  523. 
Russell,  Colonel,  165. 
Russell,  Jonathan,  158. 
Russell,  Rev.  Francis  T.,  592,  593. 
Rykman,  Miss,  the  Actress,  112. 


6o6 


INDEX. 


Sachem's  Head,  369,  482. 

Sackville,  Lord  George,  549,  551. 

St.  Denis  Hotel,  484. 

St.  Germans,  Earl  of,  23,  414. 

St.  James's  Place,  398. 

St.  James's  Street,  264. 

St.  Mark's  Church,  166. 

St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  357. 

St.  Paul's  Church,  512. 

St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  306,  511. 

St.  Peter's  Chapel,  29. 

St.  Valentine's  Day,  471. 

Salmagundi,  226,  236. 

Sand,  George,  541. 

Sanders,  Doctor,  165. 

Sand  ford,  Charles  W.,  146,  150,  515. 

Sands,  Robert  C.,  72,  335,  346. 

Sandy  Hill,  187,  190,  191,  231. 

San  Francisco,  465. 

Sanguin,  Claude,  56. 

Sargent,  Epes,  296,  297. 

Saxe-Weimar,  Prince  of,  480,  481. 

Schiller,  Friedrich,  228. 

"School  of  Reform,"  62. 

Schroeder,  J.  F.,  400. 

Scott,  Genio  C.,  486. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  13,   53,  in,  132, 

161,  187,  251,  255,  264,  293,  322, 

447,  507,  524,  546,  595- 
Scott,  General  Winfield,  146. 
Sedgwick,  Miss  Catherine  M.,  321, 

346,  37i,  430,  441,  478,  S6o,  571. 
Selkirk,  Earl  of,  196. 
Selwyn,  George,  566. 
Seward,  William  H.,  554. 
Shakespeare,  William,  53,  164,  194, 

245,  246,  272,  465,  548. 
Sheaffe,  Rev.  Jacob,  38. 
Shelley,  Percy  B.,  264. 
Ship  Lion,  23. 
Shippen,  William,  259. 
Sibbald,  James,  53. 
Siddons,  Mrs.  Sarah,  258,  261,  365. 
Siddons,  Mrs.  Scott,  365. 
Sidney,    Sir    Philip,    152,   225,  271, 

.527. 

Sigourney,  Mrs.  L.  H.,  492,  561. 
Sketch-Book,  232,  237. 
Silliman,   Professor   Benj.    H.,    286, 

290, 

Slidell,  John,  227,  525. 
Simms,  W.  Gilmore,  543. 
Simpson,  Edward,  467,  481. 
Smith,  G.  G.,  497. 
Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,  504,  535,  547. 
Smithson,  James,  271,  272. 
Smythe,  Douglas,  594. 


Snelling,  Joseph,  345,  346. 
Somerset,  Duke  of,  527. 
Southey,  Robert,  in,  161,  251,  322. 
Southhold,  14,  15,  17,  21,  22 
Sparkle,  Sophy,  226. 
Sparks,  Jared,  27. 
Spencer,  Charles  C.,  410. 
Spencer,  Harvey,  235. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  436,  557,  575. 
Spielberg,  Prison  of,  361. 
Sprague,  Charles,  72,  330. 
Sprague,  Rev.  Dr.,  28,  32. 
Stanley,  Lord,  480. 
Stanley,  Mrs.,  the  Actress,  112. 
Statue  of  Halleck,  494,  495. 
Sterne,  Laurence,  485. 
Stewart,  Alexander  T.,  401. 
Stewart,  Warren,  531,  550. 
Stone,  William  L.,  288. 
Stratford-on-Avon,  252,  266. 
Sturges,  Jonathan,  497. 
Stuyvesant  Estate,  115. 
Stuyvesant  Pear-Tree,  167. 
Stuyvesant,  Mrs.  Peter,  166,  167. 
Subalacan,  300. 
Suffolk  County,  15. 
Sumner,  Albert,  439. 
Swan  Island,  336. 
Swartwout,  Samuel,  145,  147. 

T. 

Talcott,  Noah,  101. 

Talisman,  The,  322. 

Talleyrand,  Prince,  251    253,  254. 

Tammany  Hall,  453. 

Tarn  O'Shanter,  280. 

Tarleton,  Colonel,  19. 

Tasso,  Torquato,  541,  556. 

Taylor,  Rev.  Dr.,  476,  521,  568. 

Tea  Party,  The,  247. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  524. 

Teresa  Contarini,  430. 

Terrill,  nephew  of  Jefferson,  237. 

Terry,  the  Actor,  261. 

Thacher,  Dr.,  30. 

Thackeray,  William   M.,    480,    505, 

605. 

Thames  Street,  411. 
Todd,  William,  188. 
Tombs,  New-York,  20. 
Tompkins,    Governor   D.    D.,    146, 

Tree,' Miss  Ellen,  481. 
Trinity  Churchyard,  511. 
Triphook,  Robert,  264,  265,  405. 
Trumbull,  Colonel,  397. 
Trumbull,  Dr.,  32,  561. 
Trumbull,  J.  Hammond,  23. 


INDEX. 


607 


Truth,  a  Poem,  345. 

Tuckerman,  Henry  T.,  262,290,402, 

44°,  453>  575- 
Tweeddale,  Marquis  of,  196. 

U. 

Ugly  Club,  156. 

Union  Club,  463.  . 

United  States  Bank,  193. 

V. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  240,  379. 
Van  Dam,  General,  519. 
Van  Sickle,  Miss,  414,  423,  424. 
Verplanck,  Gulian  C.,  104,  262,  400, 

406,  489,  497-499- 
Veto,  A  Favorite  Dog,  414-416. 
Vicksburg,  530,  550. 
Victoria,  Queen,  404. 
Villegrand,  Monsieur,  296,  297,  405. 
Von  Sydow,  Chaplain,  578. 

W. 

Wading  Creek,  16,  17. 
Wainwright,  Bishop,  417. 
Wake,  Miss  Fanny,  421. 
Waldo,  Samuel  P.,  591. 
Wallace,  Horace  Binney,  410. 
Wallack,  James  W.,  Sen.,  481. 
Walker,  Lewis,  379. 
Ward,  Jack,  41. 
Ward,  Dr.  Thomas,  497. 
Warner,  Andrew,  559. 
Warren,  General,  299. 
Warren,  Miss,  357. 
Washington,  Bushrod,  173. 
Washington,  George,  173,  174,  405. 
Washington,  Mrs.  George,  513. 
Washington  Hall,  401. 
Washington  Hollow,  18. 
Washington,  Ruins  of,  171. 
Washington  and  Warren  Bank,  187. 


Webster,  Daniel,  352,  402. 
Webster,  Mrs.  Sidney,  240. 
Weed,  Thurlow,  549-552. 
Weehawken,  231,  416. 
Weekes,  Samuel,  136. 
Wellesley,  Marquis  of,  571. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  258,  261,  461. 
Western  States,  537. 
Wheaton,  Henry,  251,  402. 
Whitfield,  Rev.  Henry,  37-39. 
Wier,  Robert  W.,  323,  397. 
Wild,  Rev.  Thomas,  26. 
Wild  Rose  of  Alloway,  281. 
Wiley,  Charles,  233. 
Willis,  N.  P.,  168,  346,  441,  448,  536, 


563,  568. 
/ils< 


Wilson,  George  Sibbald,  550. 
Wilson,  James  Grant,  220,  261,  291, 

440,  503,  507,  53°,  575,  59i,  596- 
Wilson,  Prof.  John,  143,  264,  298. 
Wilson,  William,  484,  502,  503. 
Winds  of  the  Wakened  Spring,  362. 
Winthrop,  Benjamin    R.,  212,   218, 

222,  501,  502,  591. 

Winthrop,  Dr.  Egerton,  166. 
Winthrop,  Governor  John,  23. 
Woodfall,  Mr.,  551,  552. 
Woodward,  D.,  190. 
Woodworth,  Miss  Harriet,  349. 
Woodworth,  Samuel,  330,  349. 
Wolcott,  Oliver,  104,  334. 
Wordsworth,  William,  72,  251,  452. 
Wyllys,  Samuel,  30. 
Wyoming,  Valley  of,  174,  248. 

Y. 

Yale  College,  23,  32. 
Yankee  Ravings,  256. 
Yarrow,  Minstrel  of,  339. 
Yeo,  Sir  James,  196. 
Young  America,  515,  532,  533. 
Youngs,  Rev.  John,  14,  15. 


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LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-70ra-9,'65(F7151s4)458 


N°  416915 

Wilson,  J.G. 

The  life  and 
letters  of  Fitz 
Greene  Halleck. 


PS1783 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


